KAYENTA – The Department for Child Well-Being (DCWB) held the first in a series of meetings as part of its initiative to increase collaboration across systems addressing mental health competency in the different regions of the Navajo Nation.
The meetings are in partnership with the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI) and the National Center for Adoption Competent Mental Health Services (National Center), which provide training and technical assistance to strengthen collaboration among child welfare, mental health, education, and community organizations to improve support for children and foster, adoptive, and guardianship families.
During this first collaboration meeting, resources serving the Kayenta area presented on their programs to help participants understand how to access mental health services for children and families and to identify service gaps.
The two-day meeting was attended by Navajo Treatment Center for Children and Their Families, Division of Behavioral and Mental Health Services, Indian Health Services, Tuba City Regional Health Care, Kayenta Boarding School, Utah Navajo Health System, Navajo Police Department, Kayenta Unified School District, Chinle Unified School District, Office of the Prosecutor, and Monument Valley High School.
The information shared included referral processes, which was extremely useful for participants.
Dr. Jordon Begay, DCWB Principal Social Worker, said that the participation and contributions of participants made the meeting a valuable opportunity to strengthen communication, build relationships and identify ways to work more effectively together to support the children, youth and families they serve.
The Kayenta area service providers are already meeting quarterly, so it was the perfect location to begin the meeting series. During the meeting, it was shared that the providers are supported by local leadership and that local staff are able to establish trust with the community through reliability and familiarity. Successful strategies have been to establish memoranda of agreement or understanding among partners, develop shared goals, and provide education to members or clients. Participants identified the need to involve more partners in their collaborative meetings.
DCWB is currently working toward future training partnerships with Kayenta Unified School District and Utah Navajo Health System, with plans for Kayenta Unified to participate in School-Based Training for Mental Health Professionals and Utah Navajo Health System to participate in NTI Training for Mental Health Professionals (MHPs). These partnerships will expand adoption-competent mental health knowledge and skills while promoting a permanency-focused approach that connects services to family stability, placement preservation, and long-term permanency for children and families.
DCWB staff expressed that they want to start developing resource books for each region as they roll out the collaborative meetings across the Navajo Nation. The resource books would help community members identify what services are available in their regions.
Navajo Division for Children and Family Services Executive Director Thomas Cody said the meetings and plans to create resource books are a step in the right direction for two important initiatives of the Navajo Nation.
“Developing these types of resources is aligned with the goals for the Navajo Nation’s Public Law 102-477 Plan and Diné Action Plan (DAP),” he said.
With the 477 Plan, the Navajo Division for Children and Family Services is incorporating wraparound services to comprehensively address the needs of its members. The DAP encourages partnerships to collectively address modern day monsters including suicide, substance abuse, violence, and missing and murdered Diné relatives.
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