GUEST COLUMN: Working to reduce ODs in Indigenous communty

By: 
Addie Caldwell
Special to NEW Media

Over 107,000 people died from an overdose this year, with rates rising most quickly among Black and Indigenous communities. Moreover, the CDC revealed that only one in 10 Indigenous people with a substance use disorder reported receiving treatment. Similar to other Indigenous communities across the United States, the Menominee Indian Tribe has experienced the devastating impact of the overdose crisis. At Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center, we are indigenizing care and centering our culture in services to reduce health disparities and prevent overdose in our community.

The Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center provides a variety of therapeutic interventions to people with mental health and substance use disorders, including outpatient-based services, peer support, community education, and outreach. Indigenous people with opioid and substance use disorders are routinely denied access to treatment due to systemic social and health barriers. In addition to mental health stigma, prohibitive costs and transportation issues, one of the most prominent barriers is a lack of culturally informed healthcare and supportive services.

It is vital to integrate our cultural values into the different treatment approaches that we offer, and to acknowledge the ways in which Menominee people are still impacted by our history. Indigenous communities have been subjected to genocide, disease, and displacement. As recently as this summer, mass gravesites of Indigenous children are still being discovered at boarding schools, within museums and state universities. Indigenous people not only must cope with this intergenerational and historical trauma, but they experience ongoing traumatization and marginalization.

Rather than promote Westernized treatment models such as the 12-step program, we are working towards utilizing harm reduction and evidence-based approaches that help Menominee people reconnect to their roots and history of our tribe. The Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center specifically has Indigenous clinicians and elders who work with clients. In therapeutic sessions and groups, we also utilize Indigenous medicines, such as smudging with sage and providing education on how to use traditional medicines in a respectful way.

We want to incorporate our culture in every aspect of care. This includes providing self-care workshops, which are aimed at connecting individuals to their culture through traditional craftwork and indigenous based workshops, in collaboration with other local tribal programming. We have created a community garden, where wellness center participants can learn to grow medicinal plants.

Moreover, as the Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center continues to grow, our goal is to expand harm reduction resources in the community. While a common misconception is that harm reduction “enables” people who use drugs, this public health approach to drug use can reduce overdose deaths and save lives. Through our community education program, we want to destigmatize harm reduction and teach people how to use naloxone in the event of an overdose.

Further, we hope to expand access to additional harm reduction strategies, such as fentanyl test strips so that people can use drugs more safely. Syringe services have not been introduced yet, and we do not have the funds currently to introduce this harm reduction intervention in our community. Not everyone is ready to stop using drugs, and it’s crucial to meet them wherever they are at on their road to recovery.

Earlier this year, our team was trained in Generation Red Road, an intensive curriculum that teaches us how to adopt holistic, culturally relevant models of care to better support people with substance use disorders. We are now guiding our clients who have substance use disorders through this curriculum so they can better understand trauma and addiction through a cultural lens.

Ultimately, I believe culture is a form of prevention. As a tribe, we are tired of tragically losing our family members, friends, loved ones to overdose. Menominee people deserve to thrive, and they deserve access to culturally driven care and harm reduction resources that can help end overdose in our community. Though we have experienced collective pain as a community, we believe that celebrating the Menominee tribe’s rich culture and history is essential to supporting people on their path to recovery.


Addie Caldwell is the director of wellness programs at the Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin.

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