Thursday, April 25, 2024
4/25/2024
It has long been recognized that the population of Alaskan Native youth is at highest risk, bar none, for committing and completing various acts of self-harm including substance abuses and suicide. Alaska always ranks in the top two states for suicide, and our region is not immune, and the indigenous people of the extended Chugach Region are at extremely high risk. Further, Alaska has the most alcohol abuse with twice the annual consumption of alcohol per capita of the Lower 48. Our children are exposed to horrors that haunt and shape lives for generations. For this reason Chugachmiut seeks to address this most serious of problems through the current application for funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Tribal Behavioral Health Grant Program (Short Title: Native Connections) to promote early intervention strategies and implement positive youth development programming to reduce risk factors for suicidal behavior and substance abuse. Our program, Iguillrrapet, Lumacirpet “Our Kids, Our Culture”, will pair nationally recognized evidence-based best practices from the Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) within the homes with parents and siblings with community and school-based activities to promote acceptance of healing, to remove stigmas, and to educate on the many paths out of family troubles. Our plan is to hire a new itinerating Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) clinician who will travel out to each of the four village communities throughout the Chugachmiut catchment region on a rotating basis. The Brief Strategic Family Therapy clinician will be supported by our Child Welfare Systems Planner who specializes in ICWA and child protection matters, our itinerating Behavioral Health Clinician, and our itinerating Domestic Violence Advocate In efforts to reach the youth, we will provide services in the homes, the schools, and within the community. We will engage our regional youth with entire family involvement (to the greatest extent possible and allowable). We will help to remove existing problems such as home-based substance addictions within siblings and parents in order to (1) show “problem-solving in action” and (2) to remove the basis for home-based unhealthy modeling. During village visits, our Brief Strategic Family Therapy clinician and other clinical providers will provide community psycho-educational presentations on communications, breaking the cycle of addictions, parenting skills, and other topics with heart-connected stories, humor, and real approaches to the matters that affect them most. Then, once per year, at the request of our tribes, we will host two regional tribal gatherings; one for the men of the region and the other for the women. Both groups will give feedback on the program, the future directions they would like to see pursued, and reviewing the traditional pathways to healing. And, finally, we will be within the schools, giving presentations, gaining familiarity, hearing from the teachers as to whom they have greatest concerns for, and reaching out to the broadest swath of youth possible. This SAMHSA Iguillrrapet, Lumacirpet Our Kids, Our Culture project will make a difference in many, many lives.
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).
