Director’s Behavioral Health Initiative

Mission

The Behavioral Health Initiative and its four major areas of focus: Methamphetamine Reduction, Suicide Prevention, Behavioral Health – Management Information System and Child Protection, are geared toward the implementation of strategies and techniques within the Indian Health Service on the Federal, Tribal, and Urban Health levels that integrate and adapt various types of mental health techniques, such as stages of change, social cognitive theory, preventive counseling and interviewing tools, toward the goal of improving the physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being of AI/AN people.

The Behavioral Health Initiative (BHI) will identify and support innovative efforts within the 12 Areas which highlight and apply methods such as behavioral change, prevention counseling and interviewing methods toward the treatment of chronic illness and health promotion/disease prevention.

Strategies

Currently, local behavioral health programs are primarily crisis-oriented treatment centers. Promoting the behavioral health of individuals, families, and communities on an ongoing basis, as opposed to only working from crisis to crisis, will require a system-wide effort to change approaches, seek new and sustainable resources, and maximize current program effectiveness. Use of multiple funding sources, collaborations, technology, data-driven program models, and clinically sound behavioral approaches must be integrated with the traditions and healing practices of the community to maximize health and wellbeing.

To address this situation, the agency will focus on four strategic areas:

• Mobilize Tribes and Tribal programs to promote behavioral health in systematic, evidence-based approaches that embrace traditions and culture as critical foundations for that health;
• Support and promote programmatic collaborations within communities, as well as with state and federal programs and agencies;
• Promote leadership development from the community to national level, with training and mentorship; and
• Provide advocacy for behavioral health programs in Indian communities among federal, state, Tribal, local, and private organizations.

The Behavioral Health Initiative (BHI) will identify and support innovative efforts within the 12 Areas of the Division of Behavioral Health which highlight and apply methods such as behavioral change, prevention counseling and interviewing methods toward the treatment of chronic illness and health promotion/disease prevention;

Each process/endeavor must integrate and support the other two priority initiatives for the IHS, which include: chronic disease and health promotion and disease prevention;

The BHI will be implemented in two phases

Phase I:

Meeting with, and gathering from the HQ and the 12 Areas BH Consultants information related to ongoing efforts that support the 3 initiatives. Efforts will be made to sensitize and highlight promising practices through the use of newsletters and the DBH and Director’s website.

Phase II:

Assist the BH Consultants within the 12 Areas in identifying and illustrating best “models” of integration and promoting these various methods throughout the Indian Health system. Based on the nature and circumstances of the specific areas, Phase I and II may be conducted and completed simultaneously. Success in reaching this mission hinges on the active engagement of the 12 BH Consultants and Tribal leadership in this effort.

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