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This issue of Addressing Addiction in our Native American Communities focuses on the history of the opioid crisis. 

Additional Resources Download Webinar Presentation Translations     Blood sugar fluctuations can trigger dopamine and opioid receptors similar to the effects of addictive substance resulting in pleasure, withdrawal symptoms and then cravings. The Mediterranean diet can prevent these fluctuations and help to balance blood glucose, help to maintain a healthy weight, prevent cravings and reduce anxiety. We will discuss simple, inexpensive, readily available, delicious and familiar ways to eat a whole foods diet. These new habits also improve energy and well being while providing the building blocks for a healthier brain and body. Recipes and meal planning guides will be provided. Speaker Jacqueline Villalobos, ND Chairwoman @New Mexico Medical Board Naturopathic Doctors Advisory Council Jacqueline Villalobos, ND is a Latina with deep roots in the New Mexico/Texas/Chihuahua border area. In her work as a holistic healer, she has primarily served underserved populations. For 15 years, she worked with migrant and seasonal farmworkers in western Oregon as a primary care provider for Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center offering culturally relevant healthcare and nutrition education. 4 years ago, she returned to the desert southwest where her passion to empower people through nutrition and lifestyle education is shared with people with autism spectrum disorders as well as people in recovery from substance abuse. She also commits her time and energy to promoting the profession of naturopathic medicine. She served as Nutrition Chair for the Naturopathic Physicians Licensing Exam for 10 years. She is currently the chairwoman of the New Mexico Medical Board Naturopathic Doctors Advisory Council.

Translations     --This was Part 2 of a 2-Part Webinar Series-- This presentation engaged participants in strategizing ways we as helping professionals can support continued healing, resilience and resistance within the Latinx communities we serve. This presentation explored racial battle fatigue, spotlighting and other workplace forms of oppression that impede our long-term engagement in this work. A final outcome was for participants to end this workshop with a plan for radical self-care and critical allyship to promote our well-being as helping professionals and sustain us in this work. Spanning two decades of research, trauma-informed (T-I) practice is seen as a new frontier in behavioral health and social services (National Council for Behavioral Health, n.d.), but more is needed to honor culturally-grounded sources for resilience and resistance when healing from substance use for Latinx individuals and communities. Building on the Critical Trauma model that addresses the role of oppression-based trauma in substance use and the unique, culturally-rooted resilience and resistance characteristics for Latinx, this presentation proposed a set of culturally sustaining practices in treating individuals impacted by substance use. Speaker Anna Nelson, LCSW College Assistant Professor @NMSU School of Social Work An educator for the previous decade and helping professional since 1996, Anna Nelson, LCSW, is a College Assistant Professor with NMSU School of Social Work and a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership and Administration. Ms. Nelson employs mixed-methods participatory action research grounded in Critical Race and Intersectionality theories to understand cultural, cumulative and collective trauma and its impact on communities with a strong focus on identity-driven resilience and resistance. From 2010- 2016, she served as Executive Director of the New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community, a statewide network intermediary that promoted racial, health, academic and economic justice for all youth statewide. Her professional practice emphases are youth, family and community engagement, violence prevention, trauma/healing informed culturally sustaining service systems development, and policy transformation, particularly for child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Additional Resources Click to View Webinar Presentation Slides Translations     --This is Part 1 of a 2-Part Webinar Series-- This dynamic presentation explored cumulative, cultural and collective forms of trauma for Latinx people and communities, their relationship to risk for substance use, and briefly introduce ways we as helping professionals can support continued healing, resilience and resistance among the people and communities we serve. Participants ended this workshop with a clear framework for understanding the roles oppression-based trauma and culturally-centered resilience play in the lives of Latinx who are impacted by substance use. Spanning two decades of research, trauma-informed (T-I) practice is seen as a new frontier in behavioral health and social services (National Council for Behavioral Health, n.d.). Where trauma analysis regularly attends to impact of emotional trauma on individuals and its correlation with risk for substance use, less is understood regarding cumulative, cultural, and collective forms of trauma on Latinx individuals and communities, including immigration and acculturation traumas. These gaps are worthy of exploration given an emerging body of knowledge which evidences microaggressions (Nadal, 2018), racism (Williams, Metzger, Leins,& DeLapp, 2018), sexism (Kucharska, 2018), and homophobia (Goodwin, 2014) as correlated with risk for emotional trauma. Finally, culturally-rooted resilience and resistance are vital in the process of healing from substance use and are rarely addressed. Speaker Anna Nelson, LCSW College Assistant Professor @NMSU School of Social Work An educator for the previous decade and helping professional since 1996, Anna Nelson, LCSW, is a College Assistant Professor with NMSU School of Social Work and a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership and Administration. Ms. Nelson employs mixed-methods participatory action research grounded in Critical Race and Intersectionality theories to understand cultural, cumulative and collective trauma and its impact on communities with a strong focus on identity-driven resilience and resistance. From 2010- 2016, she served as Executive Director of the New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community, a statewide network intermediary that promoted racial, health, academic and economic justice for all youth statewide. Her professional practice emphases are youth, family and community engagement, violence prevention, trauma/healing informed culturally sustaining service systems development, and policy transformation, particularly for child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

This issue of Addressing Addiction in our Native American Communities focuses on recent work in response to the opioid crisis. We have also included some success stories from Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) grantees. 

A proceedings of the national technical assistance meeting for the Tribal Opioid Response (TOR) grantees April 10-12, 2019./p>

“Recovery Community Support Programs” were originally funded by the federal government and offered peer-to-peer support in order to assist those in recovery find a place to be assessed and referred to supportive services critical to the sustainment of log-term recovery. Programs became a meeting place were the main goal was to support those in recovery in all their needs to secure continued sobriety. As these programs grew, they began to become indispensable particularly for those coming out of the criminal justice system. Like many new efforts in program methodologies the peer-to-peer efforts failed to gravitate to the Latino/Hispanic addiction treatment efforts. There are many cultural and historical reasons for this, but, despite the barriers, there have been a few communities that have broadened their addiction treatment program offerings to include recovery peer-to-peer efforts. This VLC session will explore the developmental conditions that make these programs possible, the service components of the programs and the linguistic and policy considerations that make, or, will make these programs culturally appropriate. Moderator: Ivette A. Torres, MEd., M.S., Former Associate Director for Consumer Affairs at the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Panelists:  Mr. Angel Galvez, BS, MAOL Mr. Javier H. Alegre, Community Advocate and Organizer Ms. Vera Fuertes Molina, CPS-AMH, CPS-AD

The body of work of peer support programs targeting youth is heavily focused on mental health models involving young adult peer mentors. In Connecticut, for example, some work has taken place involving youth 18-25 with mental illness and/or substance use disorder issues where peers provide support and hope to other young adults with these conditions. In 2017, SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health noted a rise in the lifetime illicit drug use among Latino-Hispanic youth 12-17 and 18-25 from the previous year (2016). For 12 to 17-year old’s the percentage rose from 23.2 percent of youth in 2016 to 24.6 percent of all Latino-Hispanic youth in 2017. Similarly, for 18 to 25-year old’s, the percentage of lifetime used of illicit drugs rose from 51.1 percent in 2016 to 54.7 percent in 2017. It is therefore important to explore the options of addressing these rising rates through peer support models targeting Latino-Hispanic youth and young adults. Moderator: Ivette A. Torres, MEd., M.S., Former Associate Director for Consumer Affairs at the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Panelists: Ms. Ana Martinez Gaona, YCPS Ms. Juanita Aniceto Vera Mr. John Johnston Ms. Solmaira Trujillo

---This Webinar was in Spanish/Este seminario web fue en Español---   Click the buttons below to view this webinar translated in English or Portuguese     This webinar will focus on the need to understand and deliver trauma informed care to the Latinx community. The content will include how trauma contributes to substance use disorders and will review techniques and strategies for engaging and delivering culturally informed services to the Latinx population. _______________________________________________________ Este taller web se enfocará en la necesidad de comprender y brindar atención informada sobre el trauma en la comunidad latina. El contenido incluirá cómo el trauma contribuye a los trastornos por uso de sustancias y revisará las técnicas y estrategias para involucrar y brindar servicios culturalmente informados a la población latina. CLICK FOR SLIDE HANDOUTS

This is Part 2 of a two-part webinar series titled: The Intersection of Traditional Medicine and Behavioral Health in the Latinx Community.   Click the buttons below to view this webinar translated in Spanish or Portuguese     Community Centered Emergency Room Project a program of Social Model Recovery Systems aims to highlight the connection between culture and health-seeking behaviors while focusing in the role women play in family health decisions making. Our focus group findings show that women are the pillars of health and transcend generational/gender believes. Our focus group also sought to include the health-seeking behaviors of adults age 50+ as well as youth to better understand how they use medications and if there is a preference

Click the buttons below to view this webinar translated in Spanish or Portuguese     This is Part 1 of a two-part webinar series titled: The Intersection of Traditional Medicine and Behavioral Health in the Latinx Community. This Webinar will emphasize Curanderismo, the art of traditional medicine, practiced in many parts of the USA, Mexico, Latin America and several countries around the world. The Webinar will explore an integrative approach to traditional medicine featuring demonstrations that incorporate Curanderismo with various traditional and holistic health techniques. Curanderismo will be described with its influences and history. Some of the methods and techniques of the usage of medicinal plants and rituals and their integration into behavioral health addressing body, mind and spirit/energy will be discussed. Video snippets of well know healers from the U.S., Mexico, Afro-Cuba, and Afro-Puerto Rico will demonstrate healing modalities such as medicinal plants for the nervous system; ventosas/fire cupping, limpias espirituales/energeticas/spiritual/energetic cleansings; risaterapia/laugh therapy and temazcal/sweat lodge. At the conclusion of this Webinar, you will appreciate that to be healthy, you should have a balance of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels.

Click the buttons below to view this webinar translated in Spanish or Portuguese     This webinar discussed the implications of the opioid crisis in the Latino population in the US. It discussed our social and cultural factors cause substance misuse in Latinos. Additionally, barriers to services and treatments are discussed, along with strategies on how to increase engagement and use of services.

Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Symposium: Reclaiming Our Roots: Rising from the Ashes of Historical Trauma This document is a compilation of the presentations given by invited experts at the National American Indian & Alaska Native ATTC 2015 Second Annual Symposium: Reclaiming our Roots: Rising from the Ashes of Historical Trauma.

September 2016

Summer 2016

March 2016

November 2015

Autumn 2015 

Please check out our updated transcript document on the topic of abuse of pain medications based on a symposium conducted in Minnesota in 2012.