Toolkit: Strengthening resilience: Promoting positive school mental health among Indigenous youth

The purpose of this document is to provide tools for k-12 educators, administrators, and mental health treatment providers to better address the learning and behavioral health needs of Indigenous youth in a holistic manner. It is also a resource for faculty working in higher education to prepare future professionals, particularly those planning to work in tribal communities with children and youth. The focus of this document is on the resilience and well-being of Indigenous youth in a historical context. The historical review provides a greater understanding of the role of boarding schools, forced colonization, and assimilation resulting in cultural genocide and their impacts on education. Strengthening Resilience: Promoting Positive Mental Health Among Indigenous Youth identifies how unmet needs can be addressed through a fictitious case scenario, focusing on resilience and culturally responsive practices. The document also addresses the role of trauma to assist educators and providers to advance a greater understanding of the cultural context of Indigenous youth. Strategies and resources are provided to include the Seven Teachings1 and the Circle of Courage2 that can be incorporated into traditional teachings in the k-12 curriculums and adapted in any school. This results in opportunities to teach all youth about the traditional practices of Indigenous populations. Finally, a host of resources are provided that are easily accessible to the reader who wishes to learn more about school-based responses that can be effective in working with Indigenous youth. The resources are based on best practices and include increasing cultural awareness of tribal history, language, and culture within the full continuum of educational and behavioral health response. This document serves as a supplement to the technical assistance efforts provided by Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) titled Building Capacity of School Personnel to Promote Mental Health in Native American Children and Youth. The focus of the training was to build capacity of school teams to promote positive mental health throughout the school day through embedded strategies in response to mental health needs of children and youth

The Role of Rural and Urban Geography and Gender in Community Stigma around Mental Illness

Empirical evidence describes the negative outcomes people with mental health disorders experience due to societal stigma. The aim of this study was to examine the role of gender and rural/urban living in perceptions about mental illness. Participants completed the Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale, a nationally validated instrument for measuring stigma. Directors of Chambers of Commerce in North Dakota distributed the electronic survey to their members. Additionally, distribution occurred through use of social media and other snowball sampling approaches. Analysis of data gathered from 749 participants occurred through examination of the difference in perceptions based on geography and gender. The ZIP codes of residence were sorted to distinguish between rural and urban participants. Application of weighting measures ensured closer alignment with the general population characteristics. Findings indicate that for the majority of the seven stigma measures the Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale examines, the coefficient of rural-gender interactions was positive and highly significant with higher levels of stigma in rural areas. Females exhibited lower stigma perceptions than males. However, women living in rural areas held higher degrees of stigma compared to urban residing females. Implications of the study include the need to advance mental health literacy campaigns for males and people residing in rural communities. Additional empirical studies that examine the role of geography and gender in understanding stigma towards people with mental health disorders will result in improved treatment outcomes due to increased and focused educational efforts

Toolkit: Healing our protectors: Building resilience among tribal law enforcement officers through cultural interventions

Introduction: The U.S. and Native Americans have a government-to-government relationship. The result of 375 treaties, established laws and instituted policies promote Tribal sovereignty and are intended to support the general wellbeing Indigenous persons and protect their lands and resources. The Tribal sovereignty includes law enforcement. This resource is intended to provide a broad understanding of the challenges both Tribal and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) law enforcement officers face; many struggle dealing with the traumatic events they have experienced. We acknowledge that there is a scarcity of current information related to Tribal and BIA police officers’ mental health. This document is in response to that concern. In this product we present statistics on tribal and BIA law enforcement officers when and where data are available. We provide resources and strategies that focus on knowledge and skills development to build resilience and wellness among our protectors. Most importantly, this resource provides a review of stress through the narrative of the author Leo Belgarde, Sr. Leo was forced to retire from law enforcement due to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This resource shares Leo’s story and provides suggestions for treatment and prevention using culturally responsive practices for providers of behavioral health treatment. The authors and contributors suggest using this content in training programs to underscore the realities and impact of stress with suggestions for both organizational and individual response. PTSD and historical, intergenerational, and transgenerational trauma will be reviewed. Audience: This resource is intended to assist behavioral health providers in gaining a greater understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among law enforcement officers, especially those working in and with tribal communities. It provides suggestions for a culturally responsive approach to treatment using the medicine wheel, and offers concrete exercises. It is also a tool for law enforcement supervisors and administrators who wish to gain a greater understanding of the unique needs of Indigenous law enforcement officers who are dealing with a host of job related challenges and stressors

Black Gold and the Dark Underside of its Development on Human Service Delivery

This paper examines perceptions of human service workers regarding their employment experiences and adaptations in oil-impacted rural communities in the Upper Missouri Valley of North Dakota. This study is part of larger pilot project designed to better inform health and human service professionals and elected officials about the nature of human service delivery systems in boomtowns. Qualitative methodologies were employed to analyze information gathered by interviews conducted with 40 human service workers. Both individual interviews and focus groups were conducted. Study findings indicate that the impact of oil on the human service network is complicated. Human service workers in the study were burdened with new and more complex challenges than before the boom, and had fewer resources to address these additional challenges. Their burden was eloquently summarized by one worker who stated, “While somebody else benefits, we carry the burden of oil boom repercussions.” Smaller scale local strategies appear to creatively meet many needs, and show signs of worker resilience in strategy adaptation

Who Wants To Do Rural Social Work? Student Perceptions of Rural Social Work Practice

In response to growing concerns about the national shortage of rural social workers, the researchers surveyed and interviewed 115 social work students (97 BSW, 18 MSW) to ascertain their career plans and perceptions of rural social work practice. Although more than half reported living in rural communities at the time of their high school graduation, over 70% indicated a preference for practicing social work in or near an urban area. Students articulated multiple incentives that would attract them to rural social work and expressed a clear understanding of how various systems (social service, legislative, community, and educational) could provide these incentives and generally encourage and support rural social work practice

Rural Mental Health Care During a Global Health Pandemic: Addressing and Supporting the Rapid Transition to Tele-Mental Health

The adoption of tele-mental health by mental health professionals has been slow, especially in rural areas. Prior to 2020, less than half of mental health agencies offered tele-mental health for patients. In response to the global health pandemic in March of 2020, mental health therapists across the U.S. were challenged to make the rapid shift to tele-mental health to provide patient care. Given the lack of adoption of tele-mental health previously, immediate training in tele-mental health was needed. This article describes collaborative efforts between two mental health technology transfer centers and one addiction technology transfer center in rural regions of the U.S. in response to the rapid adoption of remote technologies to provide mental health services. A learning series of real-time tele-mental health trainings and supplemental materials were offered beginning in March 2020 to support this transition. A weekly learning series covered a variety of topics relevant to telehealth including technology basics, billing, state legislation, and working with children and adolescents. Given the demand of these initial training sessions, additional trainings were requested by agencies outside the regional technology transfer centers. To date, there have been more than 13,000 views of the tele-mental health webpage which includes recorded training sessions, handouts, and supplemental tele-mental health materials. The article also provides a summary of the questions and concerns highlighted by the more than 4,500 providers who joined the learning series, noting key rural and urban clinical and structural barriers to providing virtual care

Drilling Down: An Examination of the Boom-Crime Relationship in Resource Based Boom Counties

Objective to examine the boomcrime relationship in resourcebased boom counties and to propose socioeconomic and legal measures to reduce the boomtown effect. Methods dialectical approach to cognition of social phenomena allowing to analyze them in historical development and functioning in the context of the totality of objective and subjective factors that determined the choice of the following research methods formallogical comparativelegal survey interview focus groups generalized least squares method. Results The expansion in natural resource development in rural communities has led to a number of social problems in these places. The media community stakeholders as well as law enforcement and human service personnel have reported that the rapid growth in these communities leads to increased crime and other social ills. In order to better understand the boomcrime relationship index crimes in oil and natural gas producing counties in Montana and North Dakota were examined. Comparison of 2012 crime rates in a matched sample of counties revealed that crime rates were higher in oilimpacted counties. A prepost analysis found that violent crime in boom counties increased 18.5 between 2006 and 2012 while decreasing 25.6 in a matched sample of counties that had no oil or gas production. Inconsistent with the media portrayal of these communities as a new quotwild westquot we did not find a significant association between oil or natural gas production and property or violent crime in a series of OLS regression models. Scientific novelty for the first time the article uses index crimes in oil and natural gas producing counties in Montana and North Dakota to reveal the association between the rapid growth of towns and the crime rates. Practical significance the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in research and educational activity as well as for predicting the socialeconomic development of boomtowns