Thursday, April 25, 2024
4/25/2024
While serving urban Indians in two communities, South Dakota Urban Indian Health (SDUIH) has built programming to provide integrated care to these urban relatives. Despite its successes and strengths, SDUIH has not yet been able to build its expertise in culturally-centered opioid treatment, prevention, and recovery. With only one provider providing medication assisted treatment (MAT), there is room to grow internal capacity while bringing together the strong cultural programming and therapy components of SDUIH with the clinical programming to create a life-changing, comprehensive opioid program. SDUIH plans to accomplish four goals with the implementation of this program. 1) Increase public and partner knowledge about SDUIH services to prevent and treat opioid misuse; 2) Create an integrative, community-based opioid support system centered around the SDUIH mission, vision, and values; 3) Expand currently available MAT services to a culturally-based, community-centered MAT program; and 4) Increase capacity of SDUIH providers to confidently provide MAT services to patients. To achieve these goals, SDUIH will work collaboratively across systems with new and existing partners. By creating three advisory groups to guide different aspects of the project, SDUIH will create a space for community members and professional partners to become a part of change. These groups will complement each other and work with outside agencies (i.e. Agency MABU) to create community health campaigns to provide education surrounding opioid misuse and tips on where to get help. The advisory groups will also assist in creating data measurement tools and interpreting the results of surveys, assessments, and evaluation measures. Much of the first year of this project will be dedicated to resource gathering, relationship building, and data collection. Internal capacity will be examined and evaluated with the help of an external group (Indigenous PACT) and local students serving as Project Assistants and Cultural Assistants. These Project Assistants and Cultural Assistants will work with those leading SDUIH Cultural Programming to provide a retrospective evaluation of the SDUIH Cultural Programs. From there, internal and external teams will develop a recommendation plan for SDUIH Cultural Programs and identify areas in which opioid treatment, prevention, and recovery can be incorporated into these programs. This evaluation will also assist in developing a Peer Recovery Coaching plan to expand the culturally appropriate peer workforce and programming available to patients dealing with opioid misuse at SDUIH. This Peer Recovery Coaching model has been successful in the Sioux Falls community with non-AI/AN populations and the project team proposes to adapt this model to fit SDUIH. There are no other culturally-focused MAT programs in the Pierre and Sioux Falls service areas, illustrating the need for SDUIH to fill this space. While SD is not seeing as high of rates of opioid misuse and/or deaths as the rest of the country, other data (i.e. rising heroin seizures) indicates that SD can expect a rise in opioid misuse soon. SDUIH is at a point in its lifecycle where it is ready to begin developing tailored cultural programs such as the one proposed to urban SD relatives.
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).
