Saturday, December 21, 2024
12/21/2024
The Pueblo of Acoma has recognized the challenges its people face in maintaining adequate health and wellness. Among those challenges are alcohol misuse and substance abuse and trauma, each of which contributes to the Tribe’s challenges in protecting its people. The proposed response to the SAMHSA Family Treatment Drug Court (FTDC) funding opportunity represents the Pueblo of Acoma’s efforts to expand the current Acoma Wellness Court in addressing alcohol misuse and substance abuse (Substance Use Disorder, SUD) among members of the Tribes and its impact on families. Following completion of a Drug Wellness Court grant with SAMHSA, successful sustainability of the program has maintained the Acoma Wellness Court (AWC) beyond its funding award period. The FTDC award will expand those sustained services and support the continued partnerships with other Acoma service providers including its primary partner, Acoma Behavioral Health Services (ABHS). We expect to serve 40 participants per year with moderate increases year over year in participation. The expansion of the capacity of the active AWC will provide quality services to Acoma Tribal members and work to improve health and well-being as well as reunification of families and re-integration of families and families into the culture, tradition, history, and Native Language of the Tribe. The success of the AWC is a result of braided service delivery from Acoma providers including Behavioral Health Services, Department of Education, Department of Social Services, and Tax Office, as well as Cultural Liaisons, Tribal leadership and Tribal elders. Braiding of Acoma services with cultural and linguistic traditions and healers addresses the Pueblo of Acoma’s efforts to reduce and eliminate substance abuse as an “Acoma challenge”, not an AWC or participants challenge. Our successes with the current AWC have been based on the concept that “no one begins misusing substances alone, and no one stops misusing alone”. The AWC has braided cultural and linguistic traditions into its efforts and the proposed FTDC will continue this effort through evidence-based programs that engage the entire Acoma community including families and children, Tribal leadership and Tribal elders to overcome the challenges of SUD. By helping AWC participants with community-wide support including family engagement, FTDC believes it will graduate participants from the program into a supportive environment that continues to address and assist them in their substance abuse challenges with family reunification and re-integration, education, employment, and culture sustaining support. With our current experiences with the AWC, we believe we can meet the requirements of the SAMHSA program for 40 families and children per year who are challenged by alcohol and substance misuse and abuse and trauma and help them recover and become re-integrated, productive members of the Pueblo of Acoma Tribal community. In addition to direct services provided to FTDC participants, the FTDC will benefit the entire lifespan of the Acoma community including 5,181 enrolled members of the Tribe. Data will be collected as per SAMHSA-required strategies and supplemented with Acoma-derived processes. Reporting of all data will be as prescribed by SAMHSA. The outcomes of the FTDC program will help drive sustainability within the Pueblo of Acoma by engaging all members of the Tribe from throughout the lifespan of its people and build community buy-in from Tribal leadership, elders, families, and Court participants who graduate from the FTDC program and become advocates and examples of our success.
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).