Nashville Area Funded Projects 2009-2014

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Through the MSPI Project, Cherokee Indian Hospital has worked towards becoming a center of excellence for suicide prevention for health care facilities. The hospital has taken a community focused and comprehensive approach to employ eight promising strategies which are supported in the literature. The eight strategies are: physician education, means restriction, gatekeeper education, chain of care improvement, media interventions, public education campaigns, screening, and psychotherapy interventions. The program uses evidence-based and promising practices and collaborates with Tribal leadership and other Tribal and community-based organizations to provide comprehensive care.

Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians

The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians MSPI project hosts prevention activities and provides counseling and crisis intervention services for tribal members confronting suicidal behaviors. The project collaborates with other Maine tribes to discuss and share crisis intervention plans, and an intertribal youth leadership group works for the betterment of the communities. The project provides youth suicide prevention classes and promotes educational opportunities at health fairs and through public service announcements.

Micmac Service Unit

The Micmac MSPI project is committed to expanding its tribal members’ and community’s education and awareness of suicide and methamphetamine use prevention and available treatment programs. While the Micmac Service Unit is not a direct treatment facility, it effectively uses community resources through its referral system to address our patients’ substance abuse and mental health needs. The program’s goal is to promote help-seeking behavior in all community members through a suicide screening tool, the 2013-2014 public education and awareness campaign, and locally-mandated suicide awareness presentations for schools and teachers, thereby reducing the stigma associated with accessing mental health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention services.

Nashville Area Indian Health Service

The IHS Nashville Area Office’s MSPI project seeks to prevent suicide and effectively treat persons with suicidal risk. The project provides community-based trainings such as QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) and Mental Health First Aid to raise awareness about suicide and increase mental health literacy. Through the Telebehavioral Health Center of Excellence, the project provides psychiatric consultation and psychotherapy/counseling services to American Indians, with a specific focus on Veterans and their families. The project also aims to increase provider prevention and intervention competence, and provides specialized education and training in diagnosis and behavioral health care both in person and via telehealth technology. Training in evidence-based strategies for responding to and treating depression and suicide (and associated mental health problems) is emphasized.

Oneida Indian Nation

The Oneida MSPI project aims to integrate behavioral health with primary care services, provide a well-trained support network for at-risk individuals, empower youth, and implement an interactive media campaign to address methamphetamine use and suicide. Project employees provide consultations, treatment planning and crisis intervention, and are trained in Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR), safeTALK, and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) suicide intervention methods. Prevention and postvention trainings are held in local schools in partnership with Madison and Oneida County Suicide Coalitions. The MSPI project also supports the Youth Ambassador Program which coordinates skill-building workshops with a focus on youth leadership and Oneida and Haudenosaunee culture.

Passamaquoddy Indian Township

The Passamaquoddy Indian Township MSPI project provides screening, treatment, and counseling services addressing methamphetamine use and suicidal activity. The project sponsors community prevention events and has held a Gathering of Native Americans (GONA) event. The project also provides Native Aspirations trainings to prevent youth violence, bullying, and suicide.

Penobscot Indian Nation

The Penobscot Indian Nation MSPI project aims to provide suicide prevention skills to tribal members and to educate the community about methamphetamine abuse and trends. Counselors have been trained in the 10 Core Competencies of Trauma, PTSD, Grief and Loss and Evidence Based Trauma Treatments and Interventions and are Certified Clinical Trauma Professionals. They have also attended the “Honoring Children, Mending the Circle” training, a cultural adaptation of Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, offered by Indian Country Child Trauma Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Penobscot Nation Health Department collaborates with Wabanki Mental Health Services in Bangor to provide case management services. A prescription drug toolkit was created by the Penobscot MSPI project and delivered to all community households to provide scientifically accurate, family-relevant, and readily available information about prescription drug abuse.

Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe

The Saint Regis Mohawk Mental Health Services MSPI project provides drug use and suicide prevention and treatment for the community. The project focuses on community engagement and prevention initiatives, while recognizing and respecting the cultural distinctions of the Akwesasne Mohawk community. The project provides opportunities for education, support, crisis intervention, and prevention within the community and school system.