Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Kenaitze's Chemical Dependency Program Reinforcement - Kenaitze Indian Tribe (Kenaitze, “the Tribe”) is a Federally recognized tribal government reorganized in 1971 under the statutes of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, as amended for Alaska in 1936. The Tribe’s service area population is 35,943 people, and comprises the communities of Kenai, Soldotna, Sterling, Nikiski, Salamatof, Ridgeway, Kalifornsky, Cooper Landing, Funny River, and Kasilof—a geographical area that spreads across more than 15,000 square miles of rural Alaska. Kenaitze serves 1,809 Tribal Members and approximately 4,410 Alaska Native/American Indian (AN/AI) residents of the central Kenai Peninsula. The Tribe requests $400,000 in IHS SASP Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Aftercare (SAPTA) funding in FY2022 in support of the following goal and objectives: Goal: To expand awareness of, access to, and community coordination of substance abuse prevention, treatment, and aftercare support services within the Kenaitze service area. • Objective 1: Hire, educate and train three (3) Tribal health providers in evidence-based practices for SUD identification, treatment, and aftercare in Year 1. • Objective 2: Provide evidence-based substance abuse care for 20 Native youth and 30 Native adults within the Kenaitze service area during Year 1. • Objective 3: Develop one (1) formal pathway toward mutual referral partnerships across intra-Tribal and community partners in Year 1. • Objective 4: Promote positive youth development and self-sufficiency among 20 Native youth to in support of substance abuse prevention through a partnership between Kenaitze Behavioral Health and Education Divisions. • Objective 5: Assess, optimize, and re-affirm Kenaitze’s Chemical Dependency program structure by developing (1) strategic plan document in Year 1 with revisions on a rolling, annual basis throughout the project period. These objectives align with IHS SAPTA program priorities and required activities, with mutual overlapping supports to reduce the prevalence of substance abuse and overall use of addicting substances among the local AN/AI population. This funding request will immediately support the hiring of three (3) full time equivalent (FTE) direct service BH staff—2.0 FTE Clinicians, 1.0 FTE Chemical Dependency Counselor/Tech—to provide evidence-based immediate services, support care coordination under the purview of one (1) 0.50 FTE SAPTA Project Coordinator (“Coordinator”) to manage SAPTA activities and support partnership efforts within Kenaitze and among the community, allow for immediate infrastructure upgrades to the intake portion of our electronic health record system, subsidize best-practice trainings for staff through trauma-informed care (TIC) approaches, and build internal capacity by supporting non-clinical staff develop through the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) Behavioral Health Aide (BHA) program. The SAPTA project will incorporate evidence-based practices (EPBs) which have shown successful among AN/AI populations including Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment; Alaska Screening Tool; American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) Continuum and CO-Triage software; Motivational Interviewing; the Matrix Model; and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Within the last five (5) years, Kenaitze has successfully implemented an IHS Methamphetamine and Suicide Prevention Initiative (MSPI) Gen-I project and looks forward to the expansion of services and care coordination made possible by SAPTA.
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).