AK Discretionary Funding Fiscal Year 2018

There is a fundamental change occurring in Alaska's Yukon Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta that involves incorporation of traditional values and practices into prevention and treatment programs to help Yukon Kuskokwim Yup'ik people heal from cultural loss, mental health and/or substance abuse disorders. The Yukon Kuskokwim village of Akiachak is seeking to enhance its capabilities to respond to the expressed needs of the people by planning and implementing a culturally oriented Native Connections program based on traditional teachings, called "Calricaraq".

Calricaraq, translated "helping families heal," is based on a curriculum grounded in the traditional values and ways of the Y-K Delta's Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska. The primary goal of this project will be to restore cultural pride in our young people, which will help reduce vulnerability to suicide. This formalized suicide prevention program will be the first of its kind in Akiachak, and will establish a precedent that other communities will want to emulate. The key to our strategy is the promotion and teaching of our Yup'ik ways of life to young people through local cultural and subsistence activities led by Elders, and administered by local Alaska Native staff that will guide and teach our young people to live a healthy lifestyle, using the familiar surroundings of our land and culture. This way of life our people once knew and practiced, but moved away from, resulted in many of our health and social problems, including suicide, that we suffer from today.

At the heart of this approach are holistic, culture-based and community-centered activities and services that are responsive to the needs of our Alaska Native families, built on the community's strengths. Only through this method can our Y-K Delta community heal from the distress our people experience. The community of Akiachak is the target site, but we anticipate that neighboring villages will want to follow our lead as we progress in restoring healthy ways

There is a fundamental change occurring in Alaska's Yukon Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta that involves incorporation of traditional values and practices into prevention and treatment programs to help Yukon Kuskokwim Yup'ik people heal from mental health and/or substance abuse disorders. This process reflects the contemporary will of the Y-K people who are seeking traditional solutions to health and social problems that have become endemic in the region. The Yukon Kuskokwim village of Akiak is seeking to enhance its capabilities to respond to the expressed needs of the people by planning and implementing a culturally oriented Native Connections program based on traditional teachings, called "Calricaraq".

Calricaraq, translated "helping families heal," is based on a curriculum grounded in the traditional values and ways of the Y-K Delta's Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska. The primary goal of this project will be to restore cultural pride in our young people, which will help reduce vulnerability to suicide. This formalized suicide prevention program will be the first of its kind in Akiak, and will establish a precedent that other communities will want to emulate. The key to our strategy is the promotion and teaching of our Yup'ik ways of life to young people through local cultural and subsistence activities led by Elders, and administered by local Alaska Native staff that will guide and teach our young people to live a healthy lifestyle, using the familiar surroundings of our land and culture. This way of life our people once knew and practiced, but moved away from, resulted in many of our health and social problems, including suicide, that we suffer from today.

At the heart of this approach are holistic, culture-based and community-centered activities and services that are responsive to the needs of our Alaska Native families, and built on the community's strengths.

In the first year of the grant, ANTHC plans to work with seven tribal partners to conduct the following activities to achieve the following two goals. The seven regional tribes include: 1. Norton Sound Health Corporation, 2. North Slope Borough, 3. Chugachmiut, 4. Aleutian and Pribilof Association, 5. the Native Village of Kotzebue/Kotzebue IRA and 6. Ketchikan Indian Community 7. Ninilchik Traditional Council. Goal #1: Assess service gaps in seven Alaska behavioral health areas and develop individual plans to address service gaps in a culturally appropriate manner. Goal #2: Ensure best practice is being utilized for standards of care, intervention, discharge and postvention. Approximately 35,000 Alaska Native young people ages 10-24 will be served annually after the first-year assessment.

Project Summary: Project staff will increase the capacity of the behavioral health staff of the Pribilof Islands Aleut Community of St. Paul Island (ACSPI), a federally recognized tribe, to reduce risky behaviors in 158 youth and young adults ages 8 – 24 by implementing evidence-based culturally centered community programs that address mental health disorders and reduce substance abuse and suicide attempts. Population(s) to be served: 410 tribal members (ACSPI), focus population: 158 and young adults (8 – 24) at risk of substance abuse and suicide.Strategies/interventions: evidence-based culturally centered community programs that address mental health disorders. Project Goal: Increase the capacity of the ACSPI to reduce risky behaviors in youth and young adults ages 8 – 24 by implementing evidence-based culturally centered community programs that address mental health disorders and reduce substance abuse and suicide attempts. Objective 1: In each month of the project, we will continue community dialogue which will facilitate providing community outreach and education and receiving regular guidance, feedback and review of project activities from five groups of community stakeholders: project recipients, family members, Tribal leaders, youth leaders, and spiritual advisers. Objective 2: By January 31, 2019, project staff will complete four required community assessment deliverables that address suicide prevention, substance use prevention, and mental health disorders. Objective 3: By September 30, 2019, project staff will complete policies and procedures to promote coordination among all St. Paul Island agencies serving tribal youth and their families and protocols to ensure that DHHS staff provide postvention and follow-up services to 100% of youth at risk of or attempting suicide. Objective 4: By June 30, 2019 project staff will complete and implement a Suicide and Substance Abuse Prevention Action Plan. Objective 5: St. Paul Island’s youth and young and adults will participate in activities implemented under the Suicide and Substance Abuse Prevention Action Plan at the following minimum levels: Year 1 - 30%, Year 2 – 60%, Years 3,4, and 5 – 90%. Number of people served annually: 30 – 100 participants Number of people served throughout the lifetime of the project: 100 - 200 participants.

The ACTC (Alaska Child Trauma Center) at Anchorage Community Mental Health Services is proposing to develop a Military Family Child Trauma Program. This program will provide specialized, evidence-based trauma services to the children of members of the Armed Services, Veterans, Reservists and Guard members in Anchorage, Alaska. These services will improve behavioral health outcomes for children served. To improve access to services across Alaska, the ACTC is proposing to incorporate training on serving military families into our statewide trauma training networks, so that providers statewide have a better understanding and are better able to meet the needs of military families. The ACTC is also proposing to enhance services currently available at the center to children who are involved with the child protection system by adding parenting support/education groups. These services will improve the skills of parents assisting children impacted by complex trauma. The ACTC is also proposing to provide training and resources on child trauma to stakeholders in Alaska's legal system. The Military Family Child Trauma Program will serve 50 families annually. Seventy additional children involved in the child protection system will receive services annually. Three hundred children will be served over the project period. Training will be provided to 300 providers annually. These providers are estimated to serve 3,000 children impacted by trauma annually, 9,000 over the project period.

The Asa'carsarmiut Tribe of Mountain Village, Alaska a community of 813 residents, primarily (91%) of Yup'ik Eskimo descendants, welcomes the opportunity to assist families and youth by: increasing the capacity of community leaders, increasing our resources, working with partner agencies, approval of a community plan and finally by development of policies & procedures in order to more effectively promote and sponsor culturally-appropriate and healthy activities. We are a federally recognized tribe as identified in ISDEA Act (USC 25, Chapter 14, Subchapter II, Section 450b). We are eligible to submit this grant application to HHS/SAMHSA, Native Connections program because of our tribal recognition and rate of suicide. We estimate that we will work with 250+ youth (between ages 10-24) each year and for five years thereafter, if given the opportunity. This project will broaden our ability to partner with many different agencies enabling us to help our youth even further. One requirement, to work with SAMHSA, will be strongly pursued and viable for the success of the project. With this project, we will hire a project coordinator, evaluating specialist/assistant and hopefully a Boys & Girls Club Coordinator. We truly believe in sustainability and if the outcome is not as beneficial as we hoped it would be, at least we will have a B&G Coordinator that will be trained to help our youth in the areas of suicide prevention. We also hope to accomplish the hiring of a consultant to help us in the process of completing a strategic plan, policy & protocol development. Eventually we will submit the plan for approval to our council, community residents and SAMHSA. We will ensure federal regulations/guidelines relevant to this project are in compliance.

The Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska is proposing a 5 year project to plan and implement a traditional suicide prevention model for Native youth within the Juneau urban area. The Native Connections Behavioral Health Project will target Native youth through age 24 at risk for suicide, substance abuse, and related mental health problems. The project will develop and implement a culturally relevant prevention services delivery model within the context of Native cultural values.

The project will enable the Central Council to develop a prevention service model around some key questions relating to suicide prevention and mental health service delivery: 1) What is the long term vision for Native youth suicide prevention/early intervention services; 2) What has worked in the past, what needs to be changed; 3) What constitutes a healthy community, based on Tlingit and Haida values. 4) What should a youth suicide prevention program look like for Tlingit and Haida families and children who are confronted with financial and cultural barriers, and a range of personal and family issues/problems. 5) How has traditional culture addressed issues of healing and mental health in a community setting and how can these concepts be invoked and appropriately applied to the current situation. 6) What are the resources required to adequately address youth suicide prevention needs for Tlingit and Haida families.

The project model will provide culturally appropriate targeted prevention services for these youth and families which will: 1) Connect with at-risk Native youth and their families through culturally acceptable approaches; 2) Work with at-risk Native youth and their families who have unresolved personal issues either with self, their children, and/or family; and 3) Work at the community level to develop a circle of care for youth with suicide, mental health, or substance abuse issues, thereby

It has long been recognized that the population of Alaskan Native youth is at highest risk, bar none, for committing and completing various acts of self-harm including substance abuses and suicide. Alaska always ranks in the top two states for suicide, and our region is not immune, and the indigenous people of the extended Chugach Region are at extremely high risk. Further, Alaska has the most alcohol abuse with twice the annual consumption of alcohol per capita of the Lower 48. Our children are exposed to horrors that haunt and shape lives for generations. For this reason Chugachmiut seeks to address this most serious of problems through the current application for funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Tribal Behavioral Health Grant Program (Short Title: Native Connections) to promote early intervention strategies and implement positive youth development programming to reduce risk factors for suicidal behavior and substance abuse. Our program, Iguillrrapet, Lumacirpet “Our Kids, Our Culture”, will pair nationally recognized evidence-based best practices from the Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) within the homes with parents and siblings with community and school-based activities to promote acceptance of healing, to remove stigmas, and to educate on the many paths out of family troubles. Our plan is to hire a new itinerating Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) clinician who will travel out to each of the four village communities throughout the Chugachmiut catchment region on a rotating basis. The Brief Strategic Family Therapy clinician will be supported by our Child Welfare Systems Planner who specializes in ICWA and child protection matters, our itinerating Behavioral Health Clinician, and our itinerating Domestic Violence Advocate In efforts to reach the youth, we will provide services in the homes, the schools, and within the community. We will engage our regional youth with entire family involvement (to the greatest extent possible and allowable). We will help to remove existing problems such as home-based substance addictions within siblings and parents in order to (1) show “problem-solving in action” and (2) to remove the basis for home-based unhealthy modeling. During village visits, our Brief Strategic Family Therapy clinician and other clinical providers will provide community psycho-educational presentations on communications, breaking the cycle of addictions, parenting skills, and other topics with heart-connected stories, humor, and real approaches to the matters that affect them most. Then, once per year, at the request of our tribes, we will host two regional tribal gatherings; one for the men of the region and the other for the women. Both groups will give feedback on the program, the future directions they would like to see pursued, and reviewing the traditional pathways to healing. And, finally, we will be within the schools, giving presentations, gaining familiarity, hearing from the teachers as to whom they have greatest concerns for, and reaching out to the broadest swath of youth possible. This SAMHSA Iguillrrapet, Lumacirpet Our Kids, Our Culture project will make a difference in many, many lives.

Copper River Native Association (CRNA) is requesting funding from the SAMHSA Project Launch Program for the Copper River Child Health and Development Project (CHAD) to promote young child wellness and healthy social and emotional development in remote communities of Alaska’s Copper River Basin. The CHAD Project will promote the wellness of young children from birth to eight years of age and their families by addressing the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects of their development. Pilot communities for the project are six (6) remote Alaska Native Tribal villages and three (3) non-tribal communities. The Ahtna Natives of our region have some of the highest rates of substance abuse, domestic and sexual violence, and related problems in the nation, and the effects of historical/personal trauma have led to the intergenerational transmission of these problems. Proposed goals are influenced by the Project LAUNCH vision, the culture, and the needs of our pilot communities, to 1) Increase protective factors that support resilience, wellness, and healthy development of children; 2) Improve early childhood learning outcomes at the individual, family, and community levels; 3) Create a catalyst for systemic change that will strengthen and enhance the partnership between health and mental health organizations; and 4) Reduce the impact of historical trauma, through health promotion and prevention activities. A core activity in our work focuses on the development of a community teacher education program, which directly ties our efforts to train the early childhood workforce and educators in the highest quality, state of the art, and sustainable curriculum approaches toward the optimal development of young children. The project model is based upon the interrelated care that surrounds CRNA’s service area children, families, and communities. Key components of the model include: a) Community strengthening; b) Capacity building and workforce development; c) Systems integration of caring and support; d) Public education/awareness activities that are most effective our rural communities. Project LAUNCH Core Strategies include: 1) Screening and assessment in a range of child-serving settings; 2) Integration of behavioral health into primary care settings; 3) Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) in Early Care and Education Settings; 4) Enhanced home visiting through increased focus on social and emotional well-being; and 5) Family strengthening and parent skills training. Education and training will focus on helping parents provide healthy, safe, and secure family environments. Our three (3) key project partners bring expertise in cultural sensitivities, knowledge of indigenous practices of the Ahtna people, and valuable experience of the challenges that residents of the pilot communities face. CRNA is the Lead Health organization that operates under the authority of the six (6) Tribal governments in the Copper River Basin, and our promise is: “We the Ahtna ’aene Nene’, inspired by our cultural values, will provide exceptional health services, child and youth development, and life-enhancing resources to empower all people in our region to thrive in every stage of life, from treasured infant to honored elder.” CRNA is requesting in the amount of $550,000 for each year of the five-year project period for a total funding request of $2,750,000. We estimate that 280 people will be served with funding each year of the grant for a total number of 1,400 people over the five-year project.

This project is titled Copper River native Association Elders-Youth Wellness (Suicide Prevention). The project goals of this program is to prevent and reduce suicidal behavior and substance abuse, reduce the impact of trauma, and promote mental health among American Indian young people, up to and including age 24 years. Our target population will be those who are Native American and living on, or near, the villages that surround the Copper River Basin. This population will be at-risk of suicide attempts or substance abuse, or they may already have these issues. The number of people to be served annually will be 100 individuals, and 300 over the lifetime of this project. Project goals for year one are to develop the program with policies and procedures, as well as protocols as well as the Strategic Action Plan. . A diverse task force of community partners will lead the direction and development of this program. The ultimate goal is to reduce the suicide rates and substance abuse among our Alaskan Native /American Indian youth. The project will use a collaboration of different evidenced based program, a prevention program, a treatment modality and an education program for our Suicide prevention, substance abuse prevention, addressing trauma, and mental health promotion. By using collaboration of programs, our community will benefit in numerous ways and we will be able to accommodate different learning types and several levels of wellness. It is our community’s vision to provide our youth with the skills to become stable adults in all areas of their lives.