IHS Headquarters Level Response

The IHS Director of Behavioral Health, or designee, will:

1. Serve as the POC for all requests associated with the emergency deployment.
2. Report to the IHS Director and OCPS Director.
3. Coordinate with the IHS Office of Emergency Management, RedDOG, and other Federal partners assisting in the deployment.
4. Provide the RedDOG Deployment Coordinator with the circumstances necessitating emergency deployment, deployment goals and needs, to include the number of officers requested and the timeline of the deployment.
5. Select Headquarters and/or area level staff to serve as team members that will assist in functional roles of operations, planning, logistics, finance/administration, and the public information officer.
6. Consult with tribal leadership, tribal department directors, non-tribal organizations (BIA, BIE, FBI, State etc.), and IHS Service Unit CEO to collect information, clarify goals and objectives of the response, and provide overview of how the response will unfold.
7. Define goals and objectives of the response.
8. Review roles and responsibilities with team members.
9. Connect with federal agency partners to determine additional resources available.

Area Behavioral Health Consultant will:

1. Serve as liaison between IHS Director of Behavioral Health, RedDOG, and tribal leadership.
2. Assume additional duties at the direction of the IHS Director of Behavioral Health.
3. Request permission from the Tribal Chairperson to record the presentation so all Provider Team members will have the opportunity to listen to this presentation prior to arriving in the community.

Tribal Chairperson (or designee):

1. Will provide the team with background information (tribal chairperson’s discretion) about the history of the tribal community, culture, people, and their perspective on the current suicide behavior related events.
2. Will inform team about how team members can best present themselves to the community in a respectful, culturally appropriate manner.
3. This information will be communicated verbally or in written form depending on the prerogative of the Tribal Chairperson.

Team Leads will consist of:

1. Operations: Establish strategy and actions to accomplish goals and objectives set by the Area Director.
2. Logistics: Support Area Behavioral Health Consultant (Command) and Operations lead in matters related to personnel, supplies, and equipment. Performs technical assistance on matters such as IT, facilities and other processes.
3. Planning: Coordinate support activities for response planning, process response information, and coordinates information activities across the response system.
4. Admin/Finance: Support Command and Operations with administrative issues such as expenses, and initiate/maintain credentialing and licensure compliance.
5. Public Information Officer: Communicating with the public, media, and/or coordinating with other agencies, as necessary, with response related information requirements in accordance with all applicable laws.

Types of approaches and services that may be available to the tribe:

1. Clinical services will provide relief to behavioral health providers permanently assigned to the service unit or tribe. It is important to note such providers will be temporary and should be communicated as such to potential clients:
   1. Individual, couples, family and group psychotherapy;
   2. Suicide assessment and intervention services;
   3. Psychiatric medication evaluations and management;
2. Specialty services vary depending on the deployed providers.
3. Consultation services may provide service to groups, agencies, and organizations assisting in the deployment.Potential groups include:
   1. Tribal leadership;
   2. Tribal agencies and their employees;
   3. Law enforcement and first responders;
   4. Public Affairs for media guidance and role of social media;
   5. Local school systems.
4. Educational presentations to large and small groups (Appendix IX), Topics include:
1. Dealing with grief/loss, managing emotions, stress management;
2. Gatekeeper training: Question Persuade and Refer (QPR), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), Safe Talk (see Appendix XIII ) [PDF - 41 KB];
3. Suicide coalition building and action plan development;
4. Information about the IHS Director’s Discretionary Fund;
5. Suicide post-vention training;
6. Means reduction;
7. Mental Health First Aid;
8. Capacity building and develop community support network;
9. Zero Suicide Model.

Note: the delivery of some of these services can be provided via telehealth.