1-855-378-42281-855-378-4228
American Indians and Alaska Natives are historically more likely than individuals of other racial and ethnic groups to need treatment for drug and alcohol abuse and addiction. Reversely, American Indians and Alaska Natives are more likely to seek treatment on their own will more than other racial/ethnic groups. Roughly 50% of American Indian and Alaska Native substance abuse treatment admissions arrive to treatment as criminal justice clients, meaning they have most likely agreed to a diversion option to receive rehab instead of jail times for their charges. So as one can see, there is an absolute need for different types of treatment programs to provide services for all of the various needs of American Indian or Alaska Natives, including addiction treatment programs in native languages.
One of the problems that American Indian and Alaska Natives in Elmo face is access to effective treatment facilities, especially those who live in secluded locations. Facilities providing drug and alcohol treatment services in rural regions may not be set up to provide support designed to meet the needs of this special demographic including substance abuse rehabilitation services in their native language. American Indian and Alaska Native people can work with stakeholders and elders involved in mental health services for their tribe or region to find out which treatment services are available to them through which treatment facilities, and which ones will best suit their needs. There have been many grants offered in recent years to help pay for these types of services for American and Alaska Native clients, that have very effective programs which provide evidence based treatment that also encompasses culturally sensitive treatment services delivered in their language which are performed by bi-lingual treatment staff, medical staff, etc.
