SUMMARY: The Nebraska Native Child and Adolescent Traumatic Stress Initiative will be an intertribal effort serving American Indian children and adolescents, and their families, from rural/frontier and Reservations throughout Nebraska. The purpose of the project is to provide evidence-based trauma-focused mental disorder treatment and services for diverse and at-risk children and adolescents in outpatient, home-based or residential settings.
DEMOGRAPHICS AND CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS: There are 13,459 children and adolescents between the ages of 0-19 (41% of the total Native American population in Nebraska), with gender divided up as 52% males and 48% female. One out of three American Indian children in Nebraska live in poverty compared to one out of ten White children. Native Americans between the ages of 10-19 experience the highest rate of suicide of any population in Nebraska, 2.4 times higher when compared to the same age group in the whole state (Voices for Children, 2019). Thurston County, where 25% of the total Native American population resides in Nebraska, shows the highest suicide rate among all counties in Nebraska (University of Nebraska, 2015).
STRATEGIES?INTERVENTIONS: 1) Establish evidence-based trauma-focused mental disorder treatment and services (including screening, assessment, care management, therapy, and prevention). 2) Develop outreach and engagement strategies to increase participation from the population of focus. 3) Deliver psychoeducation related on behavioral health and suicide prevention signs and symptoms.
GOALS AND MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES: Goal 1: Provide direct evidence-based trauma-focused mental disorder treatment and services to the population of focus. Objective 1.1: Provide culturally and linguistically appropriate mental health services to 150 children and adolescents (19 years old and younger) affected by traumatic events. Goal 2: Facilitate outreach and other engagement strategies to increase participation in, and access to, trauma treatment and services. Objective 2.1: Collaboratively with families and community support systems, plan and implement three parenting guidance events in each community annually. Goal 3: Leverage services to populations of child-serving service systems, such as child welfare, child protective services, law enforcement and courts, and the juvenile justice system. Objective 3.1: Partner with three child and juvenile development social services available across tribal communities in Nebraska at the end of year 1 of the project; and Goal 4: Collaborate with NCTSI (Part B). Objective 4.1: Contact at least three NCTSI centers focusing on Native American populations such as the University of Minnesota and the University of Montana, for further collaboration and learning throughout the life of the project.
Number of people to be served: 250 children and adolescents will be served annually. It is expected over 1,250 people will be served throughout the lifetime of the project.