Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
The EMHC Native Connection program over five years will work to reduce the number of suicide attempts, completions, ideations, substance abuse and increase the access to mental health services. Activities will include talking circles, hosting community awareness events, creating a postvention protocol, establishing a youth advisory board, and collaborating with other community stakeholders. The target population is Native American youths age 12 -24 years old on the rural Fort Berthold reservation. The Fort Berthold reservation is home to the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nations (MHAN) also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes (TAT). The TAT is located in rural western North Dakota on the Bakken Oil field. The reservation covers an estimate 988,000 acres and is broken up into 6 segments. The reservation has seen a major increase in development thanks to the oil field which a part of the reservation sits upon. The reservation has seen a major increase in population, economic activity and development, crime, drug use, and more. The community is taken steps to fight the increase in drug use in both a law enforcement way and recovery. From 2018 to 2022 the MHA has seen the average life expectancies drop by 11.79% over the time frame. A large contributing factor for the decline has been the increase numbers of young drug over dosages and an increase in suicidal situations of the young members. This trauma that the members of the tribe face, have a profound effect on the quality of life that they live after the situation. The EMHC Native Connection project aims to address the growing cases of suicidal incidents, substance abuse cases, and general access to mental health that the Native American youth age 12 – 24 years old are facing on the Fort Berthold reservation. The program will work with the local schools to help schedule and organize QPR and other mental health crisis training for the staff members so that they may be better prepared for an emergency. Along with the local school staff members, members of the Native Connection program will undergo similar training so that they too might be better prepared to handle mental health crisis and assist someone who is battling a substance use disorder (SUD). The Native Connection program is working to reduce the number of suicidal situations, substance abuse and to increase the access to mental health services for the youth and young adults living on the reservation. The program is working to establish youth talking circles that can be used to inform participants about health ways to deal with situations, what services they can access, and more. The program seeks to continue offering the classes to the general youth and the youths in the probation system. The staff members are working to establish a youth advisory board as well as a youth board. The two groups would be made up of program representatives that service the youth and youth leaders. The board will discuss common issues youth experience and discuss ways the issues could be addressed. The issues and suggestions will be taken to the youth advisory board where the representatives will discuss ways to implemented the proposed ideas. The program will look to collaborate with fellow tribal and non-tribal programs in developing a community wide Postvention protocol for a youth suicide incident. The development of the protocol will allow for the programs operating on the reservation to better communicate with each other and to ensure a warm handoff between programs. The protocol will help reduce the number of patients that fall between the cracks of the different programs on the reservation. The NC program will look to help host and to host community wide events to help inform the community of the importance of mental health and the danger of substance abuse. The events will largely be based around GONA style events with additional community walks, informational booths and attending local pow wow and other cultural events.
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).
