Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention

Seven Directions, with the support of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the National Network of Public Health Institutes, has produced an Environmental Scan of “Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention Responses: Community-Based Strategies and Public Health Data Infrastructure." It provides a snapshot of how various tribes, tribal organizations and urban Indian organizations are addressing the opioid epidemic in Indian Country.

Read Our 2019 Report

Read the 2021 Report

An Environmental Scan of Tribal Opioid Overdose Prevention Responses: Community-Based Strategies and Public Health Data Infrastructure 2021

Prepared by Seven Directions: A Center for Indigenous Public Health, 2021

Since the publication of the Environmental Scan in 2019, tribal and urban Indian communities have been significantly impacted by the collision of the ongoing opioid crisis and the COVID19 pandemic.

This brief updates the Environmental Scan (2019) and the Models of Tribal Promising Practices brief (2020) with COVID-19-induced and telehealth-specific programmatic pivoting for Substance Use Disorder / Opioid Use Disorder (SUD/OUD) - Opioid Overdose Prevention (OOP) services that many tribes, tribal programs, tribal epidemiology centers (TECs) and urban Indian organizations undertook in 2020 and 2021.

2020-2021 Tribal Opioid Technical Advisory Group (OTAG)

  • Clinton Alexander, Director, White Earth Tribal Health
  • Christina Arredondo, Medical Director of Specialty Behavioral Health, El Rio CommunityHealth Center; Staff, Pascua Yaqui Tribe New Beginnings MAT program
  • Sean Bear, Co-Director, AI/AN ATTC, University of Iowa
  • David Begay, Traditional Healer; Associate Professor, Pharmacy Native EnvironmentalHealth Equity, University of New Mexico
  • Nathan Billy, Director of Behavioral Health Programs, National Indian Health Board
  • Adrian Dominguez, Scientific Director, Urban Indian Health Institute, Seattle Indian HealthBoard
  • Dennis Donovan, Retired Director, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington
  • Kevin English, Director, Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center
  • Brenna Greenfield, Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine and BioBehavioral Health, University of Minnesota
  • Dawn Lee, Principal of Dawn Lee Consulting
  • Sandra L. Momper, Associate Professor, Social Work, University of Michigan
  • Anne H. Skinstad, Co-Director, AI/AN ATTC, University of Iowa