Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
With Restoring Balance to Our Youth II, the Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley (IHC) will provide suicide and substance use and abuse prevention work to urban American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth under 25, and their families, by providing subject-specific trainings and services, traditional and cultural programs, strengthening early intervention capacity, and revising suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention policies and procedures. The target population for this grant is AI/AN youth under the age of 25, their families, the prevention staff who serve them, IHC staff agency-wide and partner organizations who work with the same community. Restoring Balance to Our Youth II will serve a minimum of 110 unique individuals over the course of 5 years, approximately 22 per year. The first goal of the program is to increase the capacity of IHC staff to identify and intervene with AI/AN youth and their families in order to reduce substance use and suicide risk. The second goal of the program is to decrease youth substance use and suicide risk by implementing culturally-based and evidence-based programs in IHC's AI/AN youth-serving program that address behaviors that may lead to initiation of use and development of substance use and suicide risk. This will be achieved with an array of approaches including prevention trainings and evidence/community-based interventions, early intervention training with prevention staff, mental health screenings for youth, and culturally-based community outreach and services. IHC will employ the following strategies and interventions: 1) training youth, family, community and staff training in Question, Persuade, Respond and Mental Health First Aid; 2) in-depth early intervention training and ongoing consultation to prevention staff; 3) policy work focused on suicide intervention and postvention, cultural practices and approaches and social media; 4) direct prevention using Photovoice, Gathering of Native Americans and other culturally-based activities (Round Dance, Wiping of the Tears Ceremony, Talking Circles, Spiritual Support); 5) development of social marketing materials for outreach, education and stigma reduction; and 6) implementation of a suicide screening processes for the prevention environment. All activities will occur in a virtual environment until such time as IHC receives guidance that it is safe to re-open and gather in-person. Any physical gatherings will follow safety guidelines to minimize the spread of COVID-19. The impact of this program will be measured by 1) staff capacity to assess and intervene on suicide risk and to prevent youth substance use and suicide, and 2) prevalence rates of substance use and suicidal ideation and risk. It is anticipated that youth served by the project will experience increased resiliency and coping skills resulting in reduced substance use, delayed onset of first use of substances, reduced suicidal ideation, reduced ER visit due to either, and prevention of hospitalizations for self-inflicted injury over time and ultimately, reducing the youth suicide rate among AI/AN in Santa Clara County.
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).
