VINITA – Cherokee Nation officials signed legislation for $23 million for new outpatient substance abuse recovery centers for the Vinita and Tahlequah areas.
After unanimous passage from tribal lawmakers in a Jan. 12 Tribal Council meeting, the CN hosted a signing ceremony for the legislation at the former Veterans Administration health clinic in Vinita on Jan. 14.
A rendering shows the lobby area of the Vinita Recovery Center that will be remodeled from the former Veterans Administration health clinic. Approximately $5 million from the Public Health and Wellness Fund will pay for remodeling.
Under the legislation, $18 million will go toward an outpatient substance abuse recovery center in Tahlequah, built near the $41 million in-patient facility currently under construction; $5 million will go toward remodeling the former VA clinic in Vinita, also as an outpatient substance abuse recovery center.
Approximately $100 million that was obtained through an opioid settlement in 2022 and placed in the Public Health and Wellness Fund Act is helping to fund these treatment centers.
“The most important thing of course is that we’re taking dollars that we extracted from an industry that did damage to people, that killed people, that made families miserable and communities miserable, that made us unwell and we’re making them pay for it in form of facilities that can bring a great deal of hope for a many people.” Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said.
The Behavioral Health team developed a recovery-oriented continuum of care that is culturally centered with the goal to improve outcomes for patients of substance abuse disorder.
“The continuum of care that we’ve developed is based on recommendations from the American Society of Addiction Medicine with standards of care that are driven by the severity of that individual patient’s diagnosis,” Brian Hail, CN Health Services Chief Operating Officer said. “The goal of this continuum of care is to stop disruptions in treatment and sustain that individual’s recovery.”
Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. talks about the Cherokee Nation’s plan to fund mental health, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment programs in the Cherokee Nation at a legislation signing event in Vinita on Jan. 14.
The continuum of care contains five levels of care that will be addressed by these recovery centers to sustain recovery.
“This recovery and those that will follow it will bring prevention, early intervention and intensive outpatient services to our communities,” Hail said.
Behavioral Health Senior Director Juli Skinner said they have identified a gap in services with families served by CN Health Services.
“One of the gaps was when you leave services for inpatient, where do you go? How do you get the services you need? So, the intensive outpatient service was the answer to that. It’s providing many services under one roof,” Skinner said.
In addition to medicated-assisted treatment (MAT), services provided at the outpatient recovery centers will include primary care, dental care, optometry care, housing services and career services.
“What we found working with our MAT patients … coming for services, they hadn’t seen a primary care doctor hardly ever. They didn’t access the services that they needed,” Skinner said. “There was a lot of stigma; there was a lot of shame coming in for treatment. So, our goal was to find a resource of service; provide, develop and make this happen for folks.”
Behavioral Health Senior Director Juli Skinner, center, talked about the types of services patients will receive at the outpatient substance recovery centers, filling in gaps in services where shame and stigma keep patients from having primary care while in recovery.
A day prior to the signing on Jan. 13, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was cutting roughly $2 billion in federal grant money that supports mental health, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment programs nationwide, according to a npr.org article, in which the Cherokee Nation receives about $4 million of the grant money.
However, the decision was quickly reversed late Jan. 14, bringing relief, albeit confusion, to many as to why cuts were made in the first place, according to an apnews.com article.
In a social media statement, Hoskin said restoration of funding cuts was the right decision as it “came on the heels of a bipartisan response across the country calling for restoration” and as quickly as the decision was reversed, “the drama and disruption associated with announcements of cuts is unhelpful to a cause which requires the full attention of all Americans.”
“Reinstating these funds allows governments, non-profits, and other institutions across the country to continue performing the very challenging work of helping those struggling with behavioral health needs to find a path to healing,” Hoskin said in a statement. “In the place of midnight hour decisions to gut federal programs, we need thoughtful consultation and deliberation about funding, programs and strategies. Cherokee Nation urges federal leaders to engage with stakeholders, including tribal nations, about improving the federal response to the behavioral health and substance abuse disorder challenges that impacts us all.”
