Monday, October 2, 2023
10/2/2023
The Santee Sioux Nation is located in northeast Nebraska bordering the Missouri River (Great Plains IHS Region). The total number of enrolled Santee tribal members is 2,918 with members living throughout the United States (Penn, 2017). Over one-third (36.9%) of the total population who reside on the Reservation are youth 19 years of age and younger (ACS, 2019. n = 367; population of focus). The Native American community faces socioeconomic and behavioral health (substance abuse, suicide) disparities that are not only the highest in Nebraska but several times higher when compared to other races/ethnicities. This area is considered a “professional desert”, in its lack of mental health and substance abuse providers (HRSA, 2022). The Santee Sioux Society of Care SPIP Program will be headquartered at the Health & Wellness Center which is a primary care clinic providing a broad range of healthcare and wellness services. Through our Program, it is expected that the population of focus will take advantage of these services to increase their overall quality of life. The Santee Sioux Nation developed the outline for a culturally-centered substance abuse, mental health, and trauma strategic plan called “Cinka Wakan” (Sacred Child). This Program will implement elements of the “Cinka Wakan” plan, assisting our partners in enhancing a collaborative infrastructure capable of building our capacity to meet a more comprehensive integrated-care range of needs for young people involved with behavioral health, trauma, and other systems (child welfare, juvenile court, and our schools) while keeping culture in the forefront of service delivery. By adding three new behavioral health professionals to the team (Clinical Director and two behavioral health specialists), our program will significantly increase the workforce capacity to provide culturally based behavioral health services and prevention programs to the community. In hiring new team members for these positions, we will prioritize efforts to identify Native Americans who have worked on reservations, are culturally competent, and will use evidence-based practices to reduce risk factors among the population of focus and their families. The Project Coordinator will be responsible to build trust between the population of focus and the services that will be in place to increase behavioral health wellness, promote suicide prevention, and increase referrals. The Project Coordinator will be the liaison between community members, partner organizations, Tribal Council, and direct services provided by the Clinical Director and health care professionals. The following evidence-based curriculum and tools will be used to address suicide prevention: The American Indian Life Skills is an evidence-based curricula designed for suicide prevention that has already been used at the 9th to 12th grade level students, in schools on the reservation. The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) for Native American Indian Youth is an evidence-based behavioral health model for traumatic events that has been adapted in some Native American public schools in Nebraska by the clinical team of this project and will be used for behavioral health prevention. The Dakota Cultural Identity Scale (Penn, 1990) will be conducted to identify and support cultural strengths and needs specific to Dakota youth. Historical Trauma Scales (Whitbeck, 2004 and 2016) will be used to assess how historical events have impacted the wellbeing of youth and community members and which results will inform clinical therapy.
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).
