With the news this morning of $2 billion in federal cuts for vital mental health programs supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), we feel it is urgent to share the impact on our Center and the Indigenous Peoples we serve.
Overnight, five of our grants serving five different tribal communities in Arizona, New Mexico, Montana and Minnesota were slashed. That equates to $2.57M of our Center’s budget supporting more than 24+ Indigenous and allied staff who were saving lives and providing new hope and healthier trajectories for children, families and young adults every day. This was covered by NPR today.
Each of these projects focused on communities where substance use, mental health risks, and related harms are disproportionately high, and where access to prevention and treatment services is already severely limited. These cuts strike at the heart of efforts that were working—efforts grounded in community leadership, cultural strength, and evidence-based practice.
Below is a snapshot of this urgent work—and the devastating impacts if this decision is not reversed or if we cannot fill this funding gap:
Project 1: Celebrating Life White Mountain Apache Community
This project focused on preventing substance use among White Mountain Apache youth and young adults on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. Each year, hundreds of school children struggling with substance use and risk of suicide received direct support from our highly effective White Mountain Apache community mental health specialists. More than 11,000 Apache community members would be reached through public education campaigns and community events that shared wise practices for supporting youth in crisis and strengthening protective factors to advance childhood well-being.
Project 2: Honoring Life: Navajo Nation Youth Suicide Prevention
This program was adapted from the highly effective White Mountain Apache Celebrating Life suicide prevention program. It supported youth and young adults on the Navajo Nation who were at risk for suicide or self-harm. By partnering with local schools, hospitals, counseling programs, behavioral health teams, and traditional practitioners, our Center’s Diné (Navajo) community outreach team provided case management and connected youth to life-saving services. Each year, the program was expected to support over 200 youth through direct case management, safety planning, and trainings, and reach more than 300 families through outreach and awareness events.
Project 3: Developing the Mīyō Youth Wellness Project to Address and Prevent Early Substance Use among Youth, Rocky Boy Indian Reservation, Montana
Mīyō Youth Wellness Project sought to prevent and reduce early substance use among youth living in highly rural, underserved communities in north-central Montana. The program was implemented through a partnership between our Center for Indigenous Health and the Rocky Boy Health Center (RBHC), leveraging RBHC’s newly built Mīyō Pimātisiwinkamik Youth Wellness Center in Box Elder, Montana. This center was to serve as the hub for culturally grounded, evidence-based prevention programming that incorporates land-based healing practices and holistic health promotion. The program was expected to serve approximately 1,600 youth aged 0–18 years who reside on Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation or in the surrounding areas. The community faces significant challenges, including high poverty (40%), unemployment (12%), housing overcrowding, and elevated rates of substance use and exposure to violence.
Project 4: Project AWARE, CIH partnership with Chinle Unified School District, Navajo Nation
Project AWARE focused on the critical mental health needs of children, adolescents, and young adults at Chinle Unified School District. The acronym “AWARE” stands for Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education, underscoring the program’s mission to promote mental health and well-being within the educational setting. The work centered on a trauma-informed school model, recognizing and addressing the impact of trauma on students’ lives and their ability to learn. The model is a community-wide approach, and includes programming for students, school staff, parents and families, and members of the community. To date our team has provided mental health support and trainings to an average of 1263 people per year. Over the two years, we have seen a 74% decrease in the number of students who had significant mental health concerns across all five schools in the district.
Project 5: CIH partnership with Red Lake Urban Wellness Clinic, Minnesota
The goal of this project is to increase access to culturally responsive medication assisted treatment (MAT) among urban American Indians residing in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The Wiidookodaadiwin MAT clinic is a collaborative partnership between Red Lake Nation’s Mino Bimaadiziwin Wellness Clinic and the Native American Community Clinic in Minneapolis, and provides daily dosing and direct prescribing of suboxone, harm reduction services, spiritual and mental health care, nurse care coordination, and drug and alcohol counseling. The project was slated to serve at least 270 Indigenous adults, offering a comprehensive, culturally grounded approach to healing for community members navigating opioid use disorder and related challenges.
The federal act last night requires an immediate cessation of all services. Without a significant infusion of near-term financial resources, our Center could be forced to shutter programs. But that is NOT our answer, nor our approach. We will persevere and we need your help. We need to raise emergency funds to address this situation in the near term to ensure our community-based employees can continue their life-saving work. We need to appeal vigorously and factually to our legislative representatives. We need to seek long-term financial partners to replace the loss of vital resources. We will be working day and night on all fronts.
The indelible words of Martin Luther King, Jr are ringing in my head: “The ultimate measure of a [human] is not where [they] stand in moments of convenience and comfort, but where [they] stand at times of challenge and controversy.”
We will do all in our power to overcome these injustices for the communities in the U.S. that are most affected. We are stronger together, and we WILL not let up.