Summary: The Nebraska Native GLS Tribal Youth program 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 culturally appropriate 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/intervention, prevention, and postvention). 2) Develop outreach, engagement, and referral strategies to increase participation from the population of focus. 3) Deliver psychoeducation related on behavioral health and suicide prevention signs and symptoms. 4) Collect behavioral health data to measure effectiveness of interventions.
Goals and measurable objectives: Goal 1: Provide direct culturally appropriate 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: Implement a robust internal and external referral process through partnerships with entities serving the population of focus. Objective 2.1: Build internal capacities to make referrals to cultural services and/or culturally appropriate suicide prevention, intervention, or postvention services, including natural support systems to all individuals in need of such services. Goal 3: Provide training to educators, childcare professionals, community care providers, to effectively identify youth who are at risk for suicide, including youth of diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Objective 3.1: Educate and train ten (10) educators, childcare professionals, and community members per year to recognize and respond to the warning signs of suicide and prevent and intervene in suicides and suicide ideations. Goal 4: Obtain input from individuals with lived experience, including survivors of loss, survivors of suicide attempts, youth, and families, in assessing and implementing this project. Objective 4.1: Provide support services to all Native youth and their families impacted by suicide; and Goal 5: Collect and analyze data to measure the effectiveness of the strategies/interventions used. Objective 5.1: Collect IPP indicators to inform clinical and outreach teams of progress made on a weekly basis.
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.