Being Every Addict's Reason (B.E.A.R) _ 2 Program - Abstract For the WAT Tribal Opioid Response Grant 2024 The Wichita and Affiliated Tribe (WAT) will implement Being Every Addicts Reason 2 (BEAR 2), a comprehensive opioid and stimulant use prevention program in the IHS Lawton Service area in Southwest Oklahoma. Our goal is to reduce overdose death by American Indians. Nationally, Natives had the highest rates overdose death of any race from 2018 to 2021. Focus areas are Treatment, Recovery Support, Harm Reduction, and Prevention, and Data Collection. Seven federally recognized Indian Nations have their headquarters in the 10 county area. It is predominantly rural and contains over 34,000 Native persons who are American Indian Alone or in Combination With Some Other Race Natives comprise 11.4% of the service area’s total population. However, two counties, Caddo, and Comanche, contain the majority of Native Americans (61%) in the service area. Natives struggle to overcome disparities in health insurance coverage and poverty, as well as identifying and serving the LGBTQ population. Our grant has five goals: 1. Reducing the number of Native overdose deaths in the area, 2. Implementing grant activities through the use of a Strategic Action Plan, 3. Increasing Native access to FDA medications for opioid misuse prevention, 4. Initiating and stabilizing substance misuse treatment through culturally appropriate means, 5. Focusing on Native youth opioid and/or stimulant prevention. In addition, our grant seeks to serve Natives with both mental health and substance abuse disorder (the co-occurring population) as well as the LGBTQ population. Other important grant objectives will be to train Native Peer Recovery Support Specialists (PRSS), to form partnerships with other Native Tribes, to provide outpatient or residential treatment for Natives with opioid or stimulant use disorder and to systematically screen the Native population and refer them to behavioral health services if indicated. Throughout the five-year project, the WAT will track, analyze and evaluate all grant activities to ensure project quality. Numerous strategies will be employed to reach these goals. We will provide well trained Case Managers and Outreach Specialists, implement trauma-informed, evidence-based, and culturally and linguistically appropriate prevention activities including immediate support, information, or treatment for high-risk Natives. We will conduct data analysis and evaluation activities to assess performance and improve performance. Table 1 below lists numbers that will be served. Table 1: Number of Native individuals to be served by TOR by modality and year Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total Treatment Services* 50 75 75 75 75 350 Recovery Support Services* 75 100 100 100 100 475 Prevention Services 200 300 300 300 300 1400 Harm Reduction Services 200 200 200 200 200 1000 GPRA/SPARS Target 50 75 75 75 75 350
