Last month, Moses Marr’aq Wiseman was helping with Yup’ik translation at the Anchorage shelters that hosted evacuees from the recent Western Alaska strom. On hand, he had a new glossary with Yup’ik words for behavioral health terms.
Wiseman, who is originally from Chefornak, said the glossary was a useful resource for supporting people who might not be used to talking about mental health.
“When you’re not of the Western culture, when you have a culture of your own that’s not a part of American culture, it’s a taboo thing to talk about behavioral health and mental health care,” he said. “So having this available, when it was available, it’s just an ease of mind I think.”…