Tribal Projects to Increase Native American Youth Mental Health Support

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is an evidence-based, interactive, guided-practiced model that uses technology to facilitate mentoring and knowledge sharing, enabling clinicians to provide best practice care for their communities.

Utilizing the ECHO model, we provide two separate virtual learning tracks or series. One track is dedicated to building community capacity in primary care and behavioral health settings for Native Youth Mental Health, while the other is focused on school-based mental health care. This program is aimed to address the significant need for practical tools and methods to support Native children and youth throughout the state of California and beyond. Our intent is to also engage our active learners to build a network of support and cross-system dialogue regarding social determinants of health, while leveraging everyone’s participation to improve mental health care for Native youth across both traditional and non-traditional care settings.

This ECHO program is funded by California Area Indian Health Service (IHS) and led in partnership with experts from Southern Indian Health Council, Two Feathers Native American Family Services, Yurok Tribe Health and Human Services, Native American Health Center, Southern California American Indian Resource Center, and Cal Poly Humboldt.

California Native Youth Suicide Prevention Consultation

With funding from California Area IHS, we partner with Two Feathers on statewide education and support for tribal suicide prevention.  These efforts have included trainings with local partners, site visits to community programs, and consultation on the development of culturally appropriate suicide prevention and postvention strategies.

Technical Assistance for “Chekws: Hope For Tomorrow” project

As part of a Garrett Lee Smith Grant supporting youth suicide prevention, we provide technical assistance for Two Feathers’ project “Chekws: Hope For Tomorrow” featuring a variety of trainings, behavioral health screenings, and school-based treatment services. In support of their clinicians serving the behavioral health needs of local youth and families in schools, we provide weekly clinical case consultation services for their complex cases and help liase any shared cases with local primary care clinics.

Annual Native Youth School and Community Wellness Conference

Led by Two Feathers, with technical and consultation support from our Center team, the annual Native American Youth Mental Health Conference brings together leaders, educators, mental health practitioners, researchers, Native American youth, and other stakeholders in fields related to Native American mental health to share up-to-date research and best practices on youth mental health & wellness.

Through telehealth, we collaborate with behavioral health clinicians, primary care providers, indigenous youth and their families to address child/adolescent psychiatric concerns. Using cultural humility and collaborative treatment planning, we provide direct clinical services with UIHS behavioral health clinicians to Native youth and their families to address complex mental health problems. In addition, we provide primary care consultation in which we have regular check-in’s with UIHS behavioral health clinicians and primary care providers to provide evidence-based treatment using a measurement-based “treat-to-target” approach.