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The deaths of two middle school boys have forced the Ute Mountain Ute tribe to confront long-held stigmas surrounding suicide and mental health, which plague Native Americans at a higher rate than any other population in the United States.

This fall, a new behavioral health building five years in the making will open on the reservation. Tribal leaders have touted its potential to bring much-needed help to the Ute people: trained clinicians on site, specialists to help clients navigate the world of behavioral health and a culturally relevant program designed for a population saddled with hundreds of years of historical trauma, high rates of substance abuse and domestic violence.

Colorado leaders, community residents and teenagers have sounded the alarm over the recent surge in youth suicides, which have risen to become the leading cause of death for people between 10 and 24. Between 2015 and 2017, there were 533 suicides by teens and children, up from 340 such deaths between 2003 and 2005, according to a report by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.

While suicide affects all populations, Native Americans and Alaska Natives have the highest rates of any racial/ethnic group in the United States, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the rates of suicide in Native American populations have been increasing since 2003. Montezuma County, where the Ute Mountain Ute reservation lies, has the fourth-highest suicide rate in Colorado at 42 deaths per 100,000 people – more than double the statewide average.

The behavioral health center, which is scheduled to open in October, will be called Mógúán – “my heart” in the Ute dialect.

“The building is the story of a transformed heart,” said Todd Giesen, the health center’s project director. “When a young person comes in, they’ve got a broken heart. But when they walk out, they’ve got a transformed heart.”

Mógúán will include two new clinicians, two staff members to help people navigate the behavioral health system, and one nurse, Giesen said. One clinician, who specializes in crisis intervention and suicide prevention, has already provided nearly 50 hours of clinical services, he said.

“It’s amazing to see how people have responded to her,” Giesen said.

Mógúán will be centered around trauma-informed care that takes into account the history of Native American people, he said. It aims to be restorative and holistic, with particular focus on the behavioral health needs of those younger than 24.

Read more on DurangoHerald.com.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration invites National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health (NNED) members to participate in its tenth annual training opportunity for community-based organizations, NNEDLearn 2020.  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 8 – 11, 2020 at the Tamaya Hyatt in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.

Applications to participate in NNEDLearn 2020 are now available on the NNED website. Use the NNEDLearn 2020 Pre-Application Decision Tree to see if your organization is ready to apply. Click here to apply for one of the training tracks now! The deadline to apply has been extended to Friday, January 10, 2020 at 12:00 pm Eastern Time.

We encourage those who are not already NNED members to join the NNED (it’s free!) and become part of this virtual network of peers and take advantage of resources and opportunities like NNEDLearn.

Clinical research funding continues to lag for the U.S. population of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, even though the nation’s largest biomedical funding agency has pledged to prioritize research on diverse populations, a new study from Oregon State University shows.

“We looked at how this commitment has translated to funding and we found that things really haven’t changed,” said Lan Doan, a doctoral candidate in public health at OSU.

“Population projections indicate we are going to be a very diverse America,” she said. “But if we don’t recognize the diversity with the Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations, we’re not going to have a good picture of the health outcomes for these groups.”

Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations are the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the United States and represent more than 50 countries or cultures of origin. But Asians have often been viewed as a model minority — a stereotype indicating they don’t face societal barriers, including health disparities, compared to other minority groups because they are highly educated and wealthy. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations are either combined with Asian Americans or excluded from studies altogether, despite the fact that they are distinct racial/ethnic groups.

Lumping these diverse populations together can hide real differences when it comes to health issues, Doan said. When all Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are lumped together, adult rates of liver cancer are double those of non-Hispanic white adults. But when the data is further broken down, incidence of liver cancer is seven times higher for Laotian men and nine times higher for Laotian women.

Even things like smoking rates can vary widely across groups within the larger population. Social differences, such as how and why a population first moved to the U.S. in large numbers, also can influence health, the researchers said.

“There are ethnic and cultural groups that need more tailored health interventions,” Doan said. “Public health is not one size fits all.”

Read more on ScienceDaily.com.

In order to highlight pockets of excellence across the country, the NNED selects a partner organization to highlight once a month. Ka Hale Pomaika`i (KHP) has been selected as the Partner of the Month for December.

Beginning in 1996, Ka Hale Pomaika`i (KHP) has provided a valuable resource on Moloka’i through a Recovery Oriented System of Care with wrap around services which support consumers to recover or maintain abstinence from alcohol and other drug misuse. KHP seeks to offer culturally respectful sober support services, including community education, relapse prevention and sober housing, to adults in early recovery from addiction on the island of Moloka’i.

KHP uses state Certified Substance Abuse Counselors (CSAC), Certified Prevention Specialists(CPS), Certified Criminal Justice Addictions Professionals (CCJAP) and Peer- Recovery Partners with long-term recovery who have “been there” to provide addiction treatment, recovery advocacy, transportation and peer mentoring. KHP collaborates with many local community agencies by offering Substance Use related assessments, treatment, a sober living home and support programs for their referred clientele. KHP offers a site for supervised workers to fulfill community service obligations. Classes for court ordered Impaired Drivers who need “SARP” are available as well. KHP also offers a variety of customized Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) for Moloka’i businesses.

The programs KHP offers are designed to reduce recidivism and relapse in recovering adults who may have chemical dependency issues. Ka Hale Pomaika’i presently provides counseling services to people who may need introduction to or support in becoming sober. Many of our participants are adults who come to the organization for advice or support in their recovery. Others are those who have been referred because they have demonstrated a need to re-examine their substance use.

Culturally respectful services may include:

1. Addiction treatment (Intensive Outpatient, Outpatient, Motivational Pre-treatment, Continuing Care)
2. Substance Abuse Assessments
3. Referrals for related services (Mental Health, Shelter, Detox, Drug Court, Rx support, etc)
4. Drug use testing (UA, Lab, Oral)
5. Impaired Drivers Classes for those with court compliance needs (Substance Abuse Pehabilitation Program SARP)
6. Transportation to access recovery
7. Peer-driven motivational enhancement pre-treatment outreach and mentorship with Recovery Partners

Learn more about Ka Hale Pomaika`i and their work to support consumers to recover or maintain abstinence from alcohol and other drug misuse on the island of Moloka’i.

View a list of previous NNED Partners of the Month.

Breast milk benefits not only offers a nutritionally balanced meal, but some studies suggest that breastfeeding may even reduce the risk for certain allergic diseases, asthma, and obesity in your baby, as well as type 2 diabetes in moms. Also, breastfeeding creates a close bond between mother and child and improves the mental health of the mother. And from a financial standpoint, breastfeeding is economical. The United States Breastfeeding Committee noted that families who followed optimal breastfeeding practices could save approximately $1,500 that would have gone toward infant formula in the first year alone. Imagine what you could do with those extra dollars

Despite the many benefits of breastfeeding, African American mothers have the lowest rate of breastfeeding initiation and duration. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that from 2011 to 2015, the percentage of women who initiated breastfeeding was 64.3 percent for African Americans, 81.5 percent for Whites, and 81.9 percent for Hispanics. And while 79.2 percent of infants began breastfeeding, only 20 percent breastfed exclusively for 6 months, and 27.8 percent met the recommended breastfeeding duration of 12 months. The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding noted that even while researchers control for family’s income or education level, breastfeeding rates for African American infants are lower than for White infants at birth, 6 months, and 12 months.

Why do these racial disparities persist? Here is what some research is showing us: (1) African American women tend to return to work earlier after childbirth and are more likely to work in environments that do not support breastfeeding; (2) healthcare settings that provide supplemental feeding to healthy full-term breastfed babies during the postpartum stay decrease the likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding; (3) healthcare settings that separate mothers from babies during their hospital stay; (4) lack of knowledge about the benefits of breastfeeding and the risks of not breastfeeding; (5) perceived inconvenience—a breastfeeding mother may have to give up too many habits of her lifestyle; (6) the mistaken belief that “big is healthy,” leading moms to introduce formula early; (7) the cultural belief that the use of cereal in a bottle will prolong the infant’s sleep; and (8) embarrassment—fearful of being stigmatized when they breastfeed in public.

Read more on the NIMHD.gov.

Koko Nishi learned gaman from her grandmother. Gaman describes the act of persevering through challenging times, the seemingly unbearable, with patience and poise. It’s a mindset by which many Japanese people ― including Nishi, a third-generation Chinese Japanese born in the U.S. ― live their lives. It’s also one of the reasons Nishi didn’t seek therapy in college, at a time she needed it the most. Nishi had failed her first class, an undergraduate organic chemistry course that was part of her plan to someday go to medical school, and it left her feeling emotionally wrecked.

“I thought there was something wrong with me,” Nishi, who is now a psychologist, told HuffPost. “I think that’s one of the times when I realized I was holding in so much, and it was really unhealthy…[Gaman] taught me resilience and helped me overcome a lot of challenges, but at the same time, I internalized a lot of my emotions,” Nishi explained. “I didn’t get to process what was happening or understand how I was feeling, or communicate what I needed.”

Asians, which make up the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S., are three times less likely than any other ethnic group to seek help, though that doesn’t mean they’re not suffering. According to Mental Health America, 13% of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders had a diagnosable mental illness in 2016.

HuffPost talked to several psychologists, including Nishi, to break down what stops Asian Americans from getting the mental health services they need ― and it begins with a complicated version of shame. The shame to seek help comes from many sources, including the model minority myth.

Nishi now provides therapy to students at San Diego State University and hosts an organization that helps students with Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds. Many Asian cultures have a concept similar to gaman, which Nishi said “loosely translates to ‘suck it up,’” and it makes students hesitant to seek help because they’re ashamed of not seeming emotionally tough.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a federal agency, provides funding for organization and programs that tackle these problems, including the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health. Nishi co-created a workshop where people can share their stories about what it’s like to grow up as Asian or Pacific Islander in the U.S. and talk openly about the problems they face. She sees it as a way for the community to understand they’re not alone in their struggles.

“I think we [Asians] tend to feel like we’re invisible,” Nishi said. “It’s a space for folks to get their story heard, have their voices heard and validated.”

Read more on HuffPost.com.