Thursday, April 25, 2024
4/25/2024
<p>The Na’nizhoozhi Center, Inc. (NCI) has been providing social detoxification and alcohol treatment services for the city of Gallup and surrounding communities since 1992 after the infamous “Drunk Tank” was closed. In recent years, NCI has had to drastically reduce their services due to the elimination of federal funding for social detox and related services. Due to the lack of federal funding for this critical service, which addresses the community’s historically high level of alcohol related deaths, including deaths from exposure, the city of Gallup has used a portion of McKinley County Liquor Excise Tax (LET) revenues and limited new state Behavioral Health Investment Zone (BHIZ) funds to contract with NCI to provide very basic social detox and emergency shelter services to over 4,732 persons. Annually, NCI has an overwhelming 26,000 admissions. Ninety-nine (99) percent of persons admitted daily are Native Americans and more than 85 percent are members of a federally recognized tribes as documented by accucare in the data. Currently over a third of the city owned detox facility is not being used. This cooperative agreement will allow NCI, under contract with the city, to expand their services to fully meet the mission of providing humane care to the publically intoxicated. This project will enable NCI to utilize the entire 30,000 sq. foot building to provide: safe housing to clients that are detoxifying, hot meals cooked on site, custodial care in a clean and safe environment that promotes dignity and respect, supervised recreational/therapeutic activities, assistance with medication, constant monitoring of high risk clients referred to NCI by Gallup Indian Medical Center (GIMC) Emergency Department, transportation of clients to and from GIMC, expanded group therapy and both traditional and outpatient counseling. Under this grant, NCI will hire and train qualified staff to oversee thes e new program components and initiatives to ensure the safety and dignity of clients in a clean and comfortable environment and to provide vital therapy, housing, transportation, employment seeking skills and other supportive services to encourage clients to choose a path to recovery and reintegration into families and the community. Under contract with the city of Gallup, NCI plans to continue to provide social detox services to anyone found publically intoxicated in McKinley County in need of 12 or 72 hour detox. NCI works with local and Tribal law enforcement, GIMC and Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services (RMCHCS) who transport and/or refer intoxicated community members to the Detox Center on a daily basis. Currently, NCI also provides Emergency Shelter to sober persons who request this service, but NCI does not receive funding for this care, which is critical during inclement weather. Currently NCI serves 4,732 individual persons through approximately 26,000 admissions annually. With the addition of new services and enhancements to existing basic detox services provided through this agreement, a total of 6,844 persons will be served.</p>
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).
