News

October 15th is National Latinx AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD); this important campaign brings together Hispanic/Latinx communities, Hispanic/Latinx service providers and organizations providing services to Hispanic/Latinx throughout the U.S. and territories under one theme. This year’s theme “Ending HIV is Everyone’s Job”, focus about the tools available to address HIV in our communities.

The NLAAD 2018 campaign wanted to be simple, direct and powerful.

The Latino Commission on AIDS (LCOA) presents the existing tools that can assist to end the HIV epidemic and ask everyone to do their part: take the HIV test, consider PrEP as a prevention approach, stay adherent to HIV treatment to become virally suppressed or undetectable, and use condoms. 

In 2016, there were 40,324 new HIV diagnoses in the United States and dependent areas. Hispanic/Latinx account for more than 1 in 4 (25.5%) of these new diagnoses (10,292), despite representing only 18 percent of the national population. New HIV diagnoses among Hispanics/Hispanic/Latinx have increased while the incidence of new diagnoses have decreased or remained stable in the other ethnic groups. The community continues to see the impact of stigma, homophobia, and transphobia as major barriers in accessing HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care. Hispanics/Latinx are heavy impacted by HIV/AIDS, addressing this is essential to the nation’s health

LCOA invites you to get involved in this year’s campaign by:

• Learning about the HIV test, condom use, PrEP, HIV treatment and U=U; and then sharing the information with others.
• Registering your events and sharing information about your events in each of your communities so that many others may attend.
• Request HIV Tests after registering your event.
• Using and sharing some of the infographics, fact sheet posters, web banners, social media resources developed to raise awareness about the impact of HIV in Hispanic/Hispanic/Latinx communities and using the hashtag #NLAAD2018
• Participating of the series of NLAAD 2018 webinars
• Visiting www.nlaad.org
• Making this campaign yours by using the customizable poster.

Read more on LatinoAids.org.  Learn more about NLAAD 2018.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration invites National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED) members to participate in its ninth annual training opportunity for community-based organizations, NNEDLearn 2019. The goal of NNEDLearn is to develop members’ skills in evidence-supported and culturally appropriate mental illness and substance use prevention and treatment practices and to support practice implementation. This training model includes two introductory webinars, an on-site 2 ½ day intensive training, and four follow-up virtual coaching sessions. The on-site training will be held March 31 – April 3, 2019 at the Tamaya Hyatt in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.

Applications to participate in NNEDLearn will be posted on the NNED website in November.  This opportunity is only open to NNED members. To become a NNED member, sign up here.

More information to come. Learn about previous NNEDLearn meetings.

Click here to view and share the full NNEDLearn 2019 Save the Date flyer! (pdf)

Suicide rates have jumped substantially among young military veterans, according to new data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Veterans aged 18 to 34 have higher rates of suicide than any other age group, the VA says in its National Suicide Data Report. The rate for those young veterans increased to 45 suicide deaths per 100,000 population in 2016, up from 40.4 in 2015, even as the overall veteran suicide rate decreased slightly, according to a copy of the report reviewed by the Guardian.

Many vets in that age group served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This isn’t just alarming. It’s a national emergency that requires immediate action. We’ve spent the last decade trying to improve the transitioning process for our veterans, but we’re clearly failing, and people are dying,” said Joe Chenelly, the executive director of the national veterans group Amvets.

More than 6,000 veterans have killed themselves each year since 2008, according to the VA data. Veteran suicide rates increased 25.9% between 2005 and 2016, as suicide rates in the overall US population also increased. But between 2015 and 2016, the rate for veterans decreased slightly, from 30.5 per 100,000 population to 30.1.

The suicide rate was 1.5 times greater for veterans than for adults who never served in the military, even after adjusting for age and gender.

The gap was even greater for female veterans: after adjusting for age, their suicide rate was 1.8 times greater than the rate for non-veteran women in 2016.

“The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is committed to veteran suicide prevention,” the VA says in its report. “To prevent veteran suicide, we must help reduce veterans’ risk for suicide before they reach a crisis point and support those veterans who are in crisis. This requires the expansion of treatment and prevention services and a continued focus on innovative crisis intervention services.”

Read more on TheGuardian.com.

The following was written by and from the perspective of Jade Begay and Dallas Goldtooth.

Formerly known as Columbus Day, today is Indigenous Peoples Day in more than 80 (and counting) cities, counties, and states. While official recognition of this day began in the late ’70s, with the UN discussing the replacement of Columbus Day, resistance and challenge to said “holiday” existed in the hearts and minds of Indigenous and Native peoples long before cities or states began to observe Indigenous Peoples Day.

As land defenders—people who are working for Indigenous territories to be protected from contamination and exploitation—we see Indigenous Peoples Day as progress; it signals a crucial shift in our culture to recognize the dark past of colonization. No longer are our communities, towns, cities, and states remaining silent and complacent in celebrating the cultural genocide that ensued after Christopher Columbus landed on Turtle Island (a.k.a. North America). Today also means that the erasure of our narrative as Indigenous peoples is ending and our truths are rising to the surface. These truths include: Christopher Columbus was not a hero; he was a murderer. The land we all exist on is stolen. The history we’ve been taught is not accurate or complete. And perhaps most important among those truths, Indigenous lands are still being colonized, and our people are still suffering the trauma and impacts of colonization.

Across the country, we continue to see the violation of our rights and treaties as extractive projects are proposed and constructed. Across the nation, we continue to grieve our missing and murdered Indigenous women, victims of violence brought to their communities by extractive oil and mining projects. We continue to bear the brunt of climate change as our food sovereignty is threatened by dying ecosystems and as our animal relatives are becoming extinct due to land loss, warmer seasons, and/or contamination.

Yet despite these challenges, our people and communities are demonstrating incredible bravery and innovation to bring forth healing and justice. Through the tireless work of Indigenous organizers, activists, knowledge keepers, and artists, we are learning about what is working and what our movements need more of to dismantle systems like white supremacy and systemic racism that colonization has imposed on our communities.

Read more on SierraClub.org.

One year after Hurricanes Irma and Maria made landfall, recovery has progressed slowly and unevenly in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The territories’ health care systems continue to face capacity, infrastructure and financial challenges even as health needs have increased, especially in mental health, according to two new reports from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The reports, drawing upon interviews with government and health officials from both territories, public documents and data, and an online survey of 21 community health centers, find that providers in both territories have restored access to some services limited by hurricane damage, while other services remain closed.

Provider shortages in nursing, certain subspecialties and especially in mental health present challenges in both territories. More than seven in ten (71%) health centers reported an increase in the number of patients they served.  Over eight in ten (86%) health centers reported an uptick in patients with depression and anxiety compared to before the hurricanes, and seven in ten reported that patients were more likely to have suicidal thoughts or attempts and alcohol or other substance use disorders.

Read more on CMHNetwork.org.

For Anne*, recovering from substance abuse, depression, and a 20-year eating disorder meant seeking help. But having moved around quite a bit as a child, she struggled to find adequate therapy despite decades of battling her issues. Because for Anne, physical, mental, and behavioral health was about more than clinical treatment; it was about working with professionals who understood her culture and her unique perspective.

Anne, part of the Ojibwe and Odawa tribes, is a Native American and native Grand Rapidian. One of the approximately 130,000 American Indians in Michigan and part of the 67 percent that live in cities, Anne refers to herself as an “urban Indian,” or a Native American that does not live on tribal land. Many West Michigan Native Americans just like Anne — though not receiving healthcare in their home communities or reservations — find culturally-specific treatment at the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (NHBP) Northern Facility Health Clinic on State St. NE.

Here, patients of all federally recognized American Indian and Alaskan native tribes can take advantage of free health and dental care (no out-of-pocket fees are required, but available insurance may be billed), as well as cultural activities like crafting and drum circles. With a community eager to rally around Michigan American Indians with medical, cultural, and emotional support rooted in a shared cultural perspective, the clinic seeks to tackle historical health disparities for the population, while offering Native Americans who live in cities a chance to reconnect. 

“I’ve done therapy outside of that clinic before and I have to do a lot more explaining about my background than I do with my therapist here,” says Anne, who takes advantage of the NHBP clinic’s Access to Recovery program, which provides her with a case manager and therapist. Free to work with others who understand her desire to treat the whole self, Anne says, “I don’t have to explain myself that way. And I feel a little bit more freer to share things … than I do outside of clinic.”

Anne also participates in a crafting group and a talking circle. “We kind of go over a meditation, we eat, and we participate in traditional crafts,” says Anne. “It’s been wonderful, I’ve got connections within the community.”

All of these things, in addition to the access to regular healthcare, help Anne stay substance-free. “For me, culture is part of that process,” she says. When fighting alcoholism, drug use, and depression, “You tend to feel pretty isolated in those things,” she adds.

Read more on RapidGrowthMedia.com.