The Spirit Lake Suicide Prevention Program (SLSP) and its project partners—including, the Spirit Lake Recovery and Wellness Center, Spirit Lake Health Center, Behavioral Health Department, Tiwahe Initiative, Cankdeska Cikana Community College, and Four Winds High School—are in the Fort Totten district in Fort Totten, North Dakota. The Spirit Lake Tribe Enrollment Office reported approximately 7,574 total Tribal Members with approximately 3,783 residing on the Reservation in Fort Totten, Crow Hill, Mission District, and Woodlake, and 3,697 residing off the Reservation. 248 Tribal youth are enrolled in the Cankdeska Cikana Community College, 181 in Four Winds High School, 66 in Warwick High School, 78 in Minnewaukan High School, and 127 in New Rockford High School. Current barriers to proper and effective intervention include transportation, lack of capacity of parents or guardians, lack of providers, no hospital beds or overnight housing for temporary homeless, low buy-in from youth over 18 years of age, and an inability to follow up with at-risk youth. The goal of this grant is to enable the Spirit Lake Suicide Prevention Department to create and codify an efficient system of programs, policies, and capacity building for the Spirit Lake Tribal Health Department, Tribal Behavioral Health Clinic, and Educational Institutions to effectively prevent suicide and mitigate suicide risk among the youth of the Spirit Lake Tribe. The objectives of the grant are:
1. Determine the community’s needs by gathering data from 80 – 100 Tribal youth, 40 Tribal parents and guardians, 10 Tribal community service providers, 5 Tribal cultural leaders, 10 Tribal Elders, and up to 20 Tribal and Non-Tribal regional youth advocates and service providers in Year 1.
2. Draft and obtain feedback from the youth advisory council for a comprehensive Spirit Lake Youth Suicide Prevention Program and Policy document through a minimum of 3 phased feedback sessions in Year 1, 3, and 5.
3. Draft and obtain feedback from the youth advisory council on the Performance Report through a minimum of 3 phased feedback sessions conducted at the end of each year.
Number of Unduplicated Individuals to be Served with Award Funds
Year 1 - 36
Year 2 - 48
Year 3 - 60
Year 4 - 60
Year 5 - 60
Total - 264
Previously the suicide prevention activities were done in a hub and spoke model with the Behavioral Health Clinic and the Recovery and Wellness department as the hub and Social Services, Vocational Rehab, Victims Services, Tribal Health and Public Health Nursing, Veterans Services serving as spokes. The proposed model shifts to the concentric model to ensure active and focused engagement by critical stakeholders and reduce their burden to perform program coordination, management, and reporting. Instead, the program will be managed and monitored by the SLSP (center). The Behavioral Health Clinic, Schools and College, Recovery and Wellness Center, and Tiwahe (middle) will be primary collaborators. The Language Programs, Tribal Employers, Vocational Rehab, Victims Services, Justice Department, and Social Services (outer) will be informed and will have the opportunity to provide feedback on the program but will not be active participants in decision making or program design. These changes will be codified and operationalized through the proposed grant.