Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
The Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma headquartered in White Eagle (5 miles south of Ponca City, Oklahoma) with Tribal jurisdiction extending to parts of Kay and Noble counties has a membership of 3,522. The Tribe operates a small, ambulatory health clinic, White Eagle Health Center (WEHC), with a user population approaching 5,000 consisting of infants, children, adolescent, adults, and elders. The WEHC service area encompasses four (4) additional counties (Grant, Garfield, Payne, and Pawnee). These six (6) counties are resident to four (4) other rural tribes, Otoe-Missouria, Tonkawa, Kaw, and Pawnee, each with limited access to mental health and substance abuse services. The proposed project will focus on the youth and young adult population, ages 10-24-years-old, in the Tribe’s jurisdiction and surrounding area. The program looks to serve at minimum 50 youth and young adults annually and 500 throughout the lifetime of the project. The Ponca Tribe Native Connections proposes to continue expanding its Native Connections program to develop policies and procedures to promote coordination of inter and intra tribal youth serving agencies to ease transition from one agency to another; to increase the role of evidence based clinical health practices to support the prevention of suicide and substance misuse; to promote mental health strategies for youth and their families and to promote the role of traditional healers in conjunction with empirically validated western medicine practices. The tribe proposes the expansion of ‘postvention’ protocols for responding to suicide completions, attempts, and clusters. These protocols will reflect the traditions and culture of the tribe or consortia of area tribes to promote healing and reduce the possible contagion of further suicides. The Ponca Tribe proposes to create a comprehensive surveillance system by creating a consortium between the five-tribe area to increase awareness of the importance of suicide and substance misuse prevention strategies to include screening across various settings and offering a variety of mental health awareness trainings across the catchment area. Strategies within the consortia will include public messaging, trainings on risk of substance misuse and identification of suicidal ideation behaviors, and partnering with educational settings (i.e., public schools, vo-tech, two-year college(s)/university center) within the consortia that serve the 10–24-year-old population. Because substance misuse and suicidal ideation are often fueled by a complex set of circumstances frequently unique to Native American communities, the Ponca Tribe proposes to reduce behaviors that may contribute to substance abuse/use and mental health issues by offering a triad of culturally based courses that are designed to increase family engagement and relationship skills. The activities proposed for year 1 are: 1) Hire Staff, 2) Strengthen D.R.U.M. coalition, 3) update referral process for at-risk youth and young adults, 4) Create prevention video campaign, initiate outreach program, and provide suicide prevention trainings 5) Develop Policies and Procedures to Promote Coordination across Youth-Serving Agencies, 6) Conduct weekly NAFFA classes designed to promote family engagement and skill building.
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).
