Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
Kickapoo Integration Health Program - The Kiikaapoa (Kickapoo) Tribe in Kansas (KTIK) requests $1,981,275 over five years to fund its Kickapoo Health Integration (KHI) program. KTIK is a federally recognized sovereign Indian Tribe in rural Brown County, Kansas, with more than 1,600 enrolled members All enrolled KTIK members have access to healthcare funded by Indian Health Services (IHS), but this does not remove all the barriers to obtaining appropriate and quality services, especially behavioral health. Though BH services exist outside the reservation, they are at least 15 to 20 minutes away by car, sometimes 50 minutes. Unfortunately, the mental health professionals at these centers often have little understanding about KTIK history; culture; and traditions, doing more harm to KTIK members experiencing issues that are compounded by culture-based historical traumas. KTIK needs to improve access to local culturally competent BH services. The KIH program will guide the integration of behavioral health services with its existing health services, building on KTIK’s successful “Kickapoo Circles of Care” (KCC) program. Through an integrated tribal-community partnership network, KTIK will increase the awareness of risk factors, information sharing, and establish a protocol for patients who are at high risk for suicide and related mental health and substance abuse problems. With increased community-wide engagement and education, the KIH program will reduce the stigma of seeking mental health support and increase access to culturally relevant resources. Responding to the intergenerational effects of historical trauma requires thinking holistically, responding proactively, and listening to community voices to develop system enhancements that meet specific needs. The KIH program’s goals are: 1. To establish service collaboration between KTIK Social Services and the KTIK Nation Health Center 2. To facilitate primary health and behavioral health services access and care coordination 3. To plan and implement KTIK’s behavioral health services expansion Currently, KTIK does not provide behavioral health on the reservation. The behavioral health services available off-reservation are not sensitive to Native American needs. This has caused many KTIK members to not seek the behavioral health treatment they need. Patients’ physical and behavioral health needs are treated as separate issues and patients must negotiate separate practices and sites on their own. This grant will help KTIK establish service collaboration between existing services and work toward solutions for increased behavioral health access in partnership with the community via a Behavioral Health Advisory Council. KTIK along with evaluation partner, CPPR, will use the Standard Framework for Levels of Integrated Healthcare to assess progression through the six-level framework. KTIK is at Level 1 on the Center for Integrated Health Solutions Framework. This grant will help KTIK move to Level 2 and beyond. KTIK is working to address infrastructure barriers to integration and ultimately aim to reach a Level 6 system integration. The University of Kansas Center for Public Partnerships and Research (CPPR) will provide technical assistance, data collection and analysis, research evaluation, and reporting. KTIK’s vision is a comprehensive, coordinated system of culturally relevant and responsive integrated health services to mitigate the effects of mental illness, substance abuse, and suicide experienced historically and inter-generationally in the KTIK community. KTIK will implement interrelated and integrated actions that support recognizing identity, culture, self-sufficiency, data, and tribal leadership, as articulated by the National Tribal Behavioral Health Agenda.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).