Thursday, March 13, 2025
3/13/2025
The Pascua Yaqui tribe is federally recognized, located in Pima County, Arizona, outside of Tucson, AZ, 50 miles from the border with Mexico. Services will be provided on reservation trust lands, New Pascua reservation, and the newly granted Old Pascua Pueblo. The population of focus for the project will be the members of the Pascua Yaqui Tribal community and their families. The Pascua Yaqui Centered Spirit Mental Health Program has diagnosed over 860 clients with opioid dependence from 2016 – 2020 (PYT, 2022). Currently, the Pascua Yaqui MAT Clinic has 129 clients receiving services, all of whom have an opioid use disorder, and averages 120 clients per year. The Pascua Yaqui Tribe saw an 85% increase in recorded opioid overdoses from 2020 to 2021. In 2021, the rate of opioid-related overdoses on the PYT Reservation was 177.5 per 100,000, compared to 58.7 per 100,000 in Pima County and 52.1 per 100,000 in Arizona, according to Tribal-specific data received from Pima County Health Department (PCHD, Nov 2023). The CDC reported that from 2019 to 2020, overdose death rates increased 39 % for the non-Hispanic, AI/AN population and drug overdose death rates were highest for AI/AN people, compared to other racial and ethnic groups. The goal of the project is to create a project to address opioid issues in the tribal community by supporting the development and documentation of culturally appropriate prevention, treatment, recovery, and aftercare services in the PYT community. We will focus on the special population of homeless youth, young parents/ pregnant teens, housing-insecure youth, and Two-Spirited - gay, lesbian, and transgender - youth. The project goal will be achieved through objectives, which will include: Obj1. Increase public awareness and education about culturally appropriate and family-centered opioid and overdose prevention, treatment, and recovery practices and programs in the PYT community; Obj2. Create comprehensive support teams to strengthen and empower PYT families; Obj3. Increase access to MAT/MOUD treatment for persons who experience opioid misuse, opioid use disorder, and/or opioid related overdoses; and Obj4. Increase harm reduction activities within the PYT community. Central to delivery of services will be a youth technology capability which will focus on youth and young adults using PSA’s, streaming videos, and a community wide awareness and prevention campaign. We will screen youth, both general prevention and opioid impacted youth, refer them for EB, cognitive behavioral treatment as needed and look to find evidence-based culturally appropriate prevention, recovery, and family centered models of care. Curricula for annual presentation of workshops for community members and professionals who serve opioid impacted families will be developed as part of the development of a network to enhance the existing prevention, treatment, and recovery practices within the existing community programs. We are requesting consideration for this five-year, $500,000 a year grant. With it, we will develop a team of four culturally trained and experienced staff in delivery of opioid prevention services. They will annually conduct the awareness campaigns, provide the community and professional workshops on resources, levels of use, and new concerns, provide the radio PSA’s, streaming messaging videos, conduct the advisory committees and screen and refer, as needed, over 100 individuals annually.
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).