Toiyabe Indian Health Project (TIHP) and the seven federally recognized tribes in the consortium are challenged due to its rural California location with limited available services and public/private entities who work inconsistently with Native Americans at risk of suicide. TIHP aims to create a cohesive public/private partnership (PPP) program with local entities and 998 Suicide & Crisis Centers to work together to serve Native Americans who are at risk of suicide.
• Project Name: Toiyabe Indian Health Project 988 Public/Private Partnership
• Population(s) and number of people to be served annually and throughout the project: From among the 3,950 Native Americans (youth, adults, and Elders) who are members of the seven federally recognized tribes under the TIHP consortium and the 10 Public/Private entities to be included in the task force, 100 tribal members and 100 employees, respectively, will be trained with 50% trained by Year 2 and 50% trained in Year 3.
• Project Goals & Measurable Objectives: Goal #1: Secure public/private partnerships to work together to develop effective and culturally informed suicide risk response services for Native Americans. . Objective: By 1/31/24, TIHP will have secured at least four tribal leaders and 10 public/private entities (healthcare, educational, and law enforcement entities, 988 crisis centers, mental and behavioral health centers, and Mono and Inyo County officials) through MOUs and will have initiated monthly meetings to develop the common purposes of serving Native Americans at risk of suicide. Goal #2: Create professional development training plans/ activities to: a) address issues affecting Native American suicidal ideation, and b) enable a culturally competent training program for PPP task force members and their employees to identify and refer Native Americans at risk of suicide to TIHP. Objective: By 8/31/24, the TIHP PPP team will have identified, tested, assessed, and amended a culturally and linguistically developed curriculum and training program that improves the competency of team members and their employees to refer at-risk Native Americans to TIHP and will have started full-scale training to all team entities and TIHP tribal nations 9/1/24. Goal #3: Create methods for collecting, analyzing, and using data to assess and improve the effectiveness of the programs employed by the PPP task force. Objective: Quarterly and annually, using benchmarks prepared by 1/31/24 and tested by 6/30/24, the PPP team and each of their organizations will have been evaluated to determine the program’s effectiveness in identifying and referring Native Americans at risk of suicide to TIHP.
• Strategies/Interventions: 1) Partners Program: Create and format the SRT task force. Include local hospital districts, 988 crisis centers, law enforcement, school districts, county behavioral health officials, tribal leaders, and mental health centers. Activities include task force development and purpose, scheduled meetings, Native American cultural knowledge learning, and how to identify and support at-risk Native Americans. 2) Curriculum Development: Develop Native American culturally and linguistically sensitive curriculum on suicidal awareness, prevention, and intervention. Activities include needs assessments, Tribal leader consultations, identifying the curriculum, developing pamphlets, flyers, videos, etc., adapted to the various entities and Native American youth, adults, and Elders. 3) Curriculum Activities and Delivery: In-person, virtual, and hybrid training for each entity and TIHP tribal nations, training to improve knowledge to facilitate referrals, tribal community education sessions. 4) Data Collection: Determine methods to collect, analyze, and improve the TIHP program through monthly and quarterly qualitative and quantitative methods. 5) Sustainability Planning: Extend the TIHP program through new funding and local and regional sources through SRT task force members.