Rural Communities Opioid Response (Planning) - Televeda proposes a RCORP-Planning project to build a sustainable partnership network and strategic action plan to strengthen the substance use disorder (SUD) service system for the Wind River Indian Reservation, home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes in west-central Wyoming. Located primarily within Fremont County and a small portion of Hot Springs County, spanning approximately 2.2 million acres, Wind River is one of the largest reservations in the United States, and its residents face significant barriers to SUD prevention, treatment, and recovery services due to extreme geographic isolation, long travel distances, and a shortage of credentialed behavioral health providers, including a lack of Certified Peer Support Specialists (CPS) trained to serve Indigenous communities. This planning project will build a committed network of partners to assess local SUD-related needs and assets across the reservation and develop a multi-stakeholder action plan to close documented service gaps. The network will include Blue Mountain Associates, an organization based on the reservation with established ties to tribal communities, and Sky Horse Solutions, a tribal nonprofit, alongside Televeda as the lead applicant. Together with traditional healers, faith-based organizations, law enforcement, primary care providers, mental and behavioral health providers, schools, colleges and institutes of higher education, local government authorities, and individuals with lived experience, the network will conduct a comprehensive community assessment covering the prevalence and impact of substance use and related behavioral health needs, the availability and capacity of SUD service providers, and the financial landscape for sustaining services long-term. The planning project will focus on addressing opioid misuse and opioid use disorder, alongside co-occurring methamphetamine and alcohol use and related mental and behavioral health needs. A central focus area is building sustainable, credentialed peer support capacity: the project will identify pathways toward Wyoming CPS credentialing for Indigenous peer specialists and Medicaid reimbursement mechanisms to support the long-term sustainability of peer support services after the period of performance ends. Additional planning activities will develop strategies to expand access points and strengthen the behavioral health workforce, informed by the community assessment and action plan. Target population includes Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho community members who are at risk for, experiencing, in treatment for, or in recovery from SUD and OUD, along with their families, caregivers, and other community members affected by substance use. Throughout the planning project, individuals with lived experience and the network's community partners will remain actively engaged to ensure the assessment and action plan reflect the community's own priorities and context. By the end of the period of performance, Televeda and its network partners will have established a sustainable network structure, completed a comprehensive community needs assessment, and developed a strategic action plan to guide the expansion of accessible, high-quality SUD and behavioral health services on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
