{"id":1888,"date":"2013-07-19T14:05:21","date_gmt":"2013-07-19T20:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1888"},"modified":"2013-07-19T14:05:21","modified_gmt":"2013-07-19T20:05:21","slug":"sequester-hits-native-americans-mental-health-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/sequester-hits-native-americans-mental-health-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Sequester hits Native Americans’ mental health services"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Laurel Morales<\/a>, Marketplace
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

<iframe \u00a0src=”http:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/node\/101891\/player\/storyplayer” width=”600″ height=”200″ scrolling=”no” ><\/iframe><\/p>\n

Centuries ago, tribes gave up much of their land to the federal government in exchange for promises of funded health care, education and housing. Time and time again those funds have been cut. The\u00a0sequestration<\/a>\u00a0has been no exception.<\/p>\n

Even though suicide rates are nearly four times the national average, Indian country\u2019s mental health services have been hit.<\/p>\n

Amber Ebarb, a budget and policy analyst with the\u00a0National Congress of American Indians<\/a>, says sequestration undermines American-Indian treaty rights, and makes a dire situation even worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe suicide epidemic is symptomatic of something that\u2019s much deeper,\u201d Ebarb says. \u201cThere\u2019s also the issues of historical trauma that continue to plague our communities.\u201d She says those problems include high unemployment, drug use and gang violence.<\/p>\n

Speaking before a Senate committee in April, National Indian Health Board Chairwoman Cathy Abramson said the sequestration cuts are literally a matter of life or death for American Indians and Alaska Natives.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the beginning of the year, there have been 100 suicide attempts in 110 days on Pine Ridge,\u201d Abramson said, referring to an Indian reservation in South Dakota. \u201cBecause of sequestration, they will not be able to hire two mental health care providers. As one tribal health official told NIHB, \u2018We can\u2019t take any more cuts. We just can\u2019t.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

And South Dakota’s Pine Ridge tribe isn\u2019t unique. American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest rates of suicide compared to any other ethnic group. The Navajo Nation in Arizona is trying to curb those numbers.\u00a0At a youth conference in Flagstaff, more than 200 Navajo teens learned how to be self reliant.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs young as nine-years-old, we\u2019ve heard of kids committing suicide. All the way up to the elders, you know, grandmas and grandpas,\u201d says Ty Etsitty, a behavioral health counselor with the Navajo Nation who spoke at the conference. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t discriminate.\u201d \u00a0Etsitty says the tribe needs more licensed therapists and facilities, especially for kids. But every time he proposes something that costs money, he\u2019s shut down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have lots of ideas, it\u2019s just too many red flags with the Navajo Nation no funding lack of maybe support,\u201d Etsitty says. Etsitty points out the reservation stretches across three states, but the tribe only has one facility for teens. That means families have to travel a hundred miles or more to get help for their kids.<\/p>\n

This story comes from\u00a0Fronteras<\/a>,\u00a0a public radio collaboration in the Southwest. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Laurel Morales, Marketplace click here for original article <iframe \u00a0src=”http:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/node\/101891\/player\/storyplayer” width=”600″ height=”200″ scrolling=”no” ><\/iframe> Centuries ago, tribes gave up much of their land to the federal government in exchange for promises of funded health care, education and housing. Time and time again those funds have been cut. The\u00a0sequestration\u00a0has been no exception. Even though suicide rates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/ettisey.jpg?fit=194%2C340&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1890,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions\/1890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}