American Indian and Alaska Native Behavioral Health Center of Excellence - The overall purpose of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BH CoE) is to create a national center to develop and strengthen behavioral health agencies to better serve and advocate for people across the United States in an effort to improve health outcomes and improve behavioral health services. The BH CoE is led by the Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW). The goals of this project are to, (1) Build relationships with community and federal stakeholders, other related SAMHSA training and technical assistance providers, Epidemiology Centers and other key stakeholders to collaboratively support SAMHSA’s goal of addressing behavioral health (2) Establish a National Steering Council that includes AIAN behavioral health experts, behavioral health providers, providers, and people with lived expertise to identify issue and guide the BH CoE, (3) Provide training and technical assistance to improve processes and practices in the delivery of behavioral health treatment and recovery services to improve outcomes for community members We will also develop an electronic resource library to be housed on the BH CoE Website that contains a vast array of resources for providers, includes current data trends and houses the on-demand training series. (4) Develop and deliver in-person, virtual and on-demand trainings, disseminate public-facing tools, organize resources and increase reach of messaging related to behavioral health accomplishments to increase the quality of service delivery, (5) Convene an annual Leadership Academy focused on increasing knowledge, skills, and professional development opportunities for emerging behavioral health leaders, (6) Facilitate a National Policy Academy to do in-depth work on policies and strategies within regions to address regional needs, and (6) Evaluate the project activities and longitudinal improvements for clients in both policy and practice.
