Lessons from the Alaskan Family Wellness Warriors Initiative - Conference Report

Introduction

We have a proud heritage in Scotland, a heritage which includes:

• a unique cultural and historic identity through geography, language, dialect, music, storytelling and the arts
• a unique history which we still celebrate today
• responsibility for our own education, health care and social care
• a diverse multi-cultural society with a range of faiths and beliefs

This heritage reflects aspects of the Alaskan native culture and is why we considered it might be possible to learn lessons from their health and social care system and more particularly, their model of support for survivors of domestic abuse, child abuse and child neglect, the Family Wellness Warriors Initiative (FWWI). We are not suggesting that the FWWI will provide all the answers we need for Scotland, but we believe that consideration of successful approaches from communities with cultural similarities might help to identify what we need to do to achieve our shared aspiration of eliminating childhood abuse and neglect. FWWI provides one such model.