Tribal Action Plan
Northwest Suicide Prevention Tribal Action Plan
MSPI Suicide prevention is a new project at NPAIHB although it has been a goal for the board to pursue for many years. With the current MSPI funding the Northwest Suicide Prevention Tribal Action Plan can now be acted upon. Since early 2008 a Northwest Tribal Suicide Prevention Team worked to collaborate and create the action plan in a short 18-months. With the MSPI funding the NPAIHB was able to hire staff, in November 2009, who would work solely on accomplishing goals from the action plan and to create reciprocal partnerships within Indian Country that will increase the success of this project.
Members of the Northwest Tribal Suicide Prevention Team included tribal health representatives, the Indian Health Service, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, State Health Departments, State Departments of Education, Universities, regional tribal planning groups, and the EDC Suicide Prevention Resource Center. The plan spans a five year period, and is designed to include the 43 federally-recognized Tribes located in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
In order to better understand the capacity of the Northwest Tribes to prevent and treat suicide, the NW Tribal EpiCenter, located at NPAIHB, administered a comprehensive Tribal Suicide Capacity Assessment Survey modeled after the Community Readiness Model. The model was tailored by the NW Tribal EpiCenter to include locally-relevant indicators of suicide capacity and to assess community readiness at the regional level, rather than for individual Tribes. Though each of the Northwest Tribes reported varying levels of capacity around suicide prevention and treatment issues, these data were aggregated to determine regional readiness.
From May to June 2008, the Tribal Suicide Capacity Assessment Survey was completed by 25 people representing 11 Tribes in the Pacific Northwest and 7 partnering agencies. This information was collected from a variety of perspectives, including tribal clinic representatives, tribal health department representatives, community health educators and CHRs, tribal Council members, tribal treatment programs, partnering agencies, youth program representatives, and other health advocates interested in suicide prevention and treatment. By obtaining information about a variety of capacity indicators, the suicide planning team was able to tailor health promotion strategies in response to identified needs.
Links
NW Tribal Substance Abuse Action Plan
NW Suicide Prevention Tribal Action Plan
NPAIHB Resolution
Suicide Community Readiness Assessment: NW Tribal Results
