Efforts to combat drug epidemic shared at special meeting
About a year ago the Menominee Indian Tribe declared a state of emergency concerning the drug epidemic on the Menominee Reservation.
The Menominee Tribal Legislature wanted to address it as a full blown emergency, much in the same way the Covid emergency was addressed during the preceding couple of years.
Thus the Drug Addiction Intervention Team (DAIT) was born, a couple of its main leaders being Benjamin Warrington, Director of Menominee Tribal Emergency Management and Addie Caldwell, Director of Maehnowesekiyah Wellness Center.
Here are some of their latest reports which they presented to the Menominee Tribal Legislature at a March 26 meeting.
•DAIT continues to meet bi-weekly to work on the opioid situation. The team continues to use a matrix from the March 26, 2022 community meeting as a guiding document for improving services to individuals seeking recovery or those that are currently working on their recovery.
•The Menominee Indian Tribe Community Addiction Assistance Program (MITCAAP) is a group of 8-10 individuals that are recovering from addiction and have been through the system and are aware of the difficulties people may face in the recovery process. A few of these individuals have been through a recovery coach training in the past. Unity Recovery Services has been retained to provide a detailed training program for the MITW recovery coaches.
•Peer Support Specialist – This is a new position that will be providing support to those individuals looking to develop a recovery plan, coordinating support group meetings, coordinating the recovery coach program and keeping records/data on the program. The position will be located at Maehnowesekiyah and is at the first posting level with Menominee Tribal Human Resources.
•Menominee Tribal Courts Chief Justice Bridget Long attended the DAIT team meeting on March 6 to discuss programs and services in the MITW Court and Probation Systems. During sentencing for some cases, they are steering offenders into treatment services for their addictions rather than jail time, in what is basically the Drug Court programming. This may take an 18 month period to complete. Upon successful completion of the program, the offenders have their record cleared and do not serve any jail time. This reduces the overcrowding at the jail and gives the offender the ability to be in control of their rehabilitation.
•Leonard & Finco, Public Relations Inc. has been retained to assist with communication of the work being done within the community on the opioid situation. Susan Finco is working on a campaign called “Talk About It”. There will be several different items communicated during this campaign. DAIT plans to use community message boards, email blasts, Menominee Nation News, MITW App, an MITW departmental social media takeover, posters, flyers. DAIT is also planning on podcasts possibly of some individuals in recovery or others that want to talk about the effects on family or community.
•The Emergency Declaration that was enacted in April 2022 has expired. A new emergency declaration was drafted for review/adoption by the Tribal Leadership. The new declaration is left open ended without an ending date. This allows for continued work on the opioid situation and does not limit to a specified date.
•Brian Kowalkowski from CMN attended a recent meeting to garner support for a grant application that CMN is drafting. The grant is from the USDA, Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR) Program. The funding is used to develop and deliver educational programs for equipping at risk youth and families with the skills needed to lead a positive, productive, contributing life. The team supports CMN in this application. A support letter was provided to Brian Kowalkowski to attach to the grant application. The grant would provide funding for up to five years for CMN to complete the programs.
•Drug Endangered Children (DEC) Protocol has been a subject of discussion at several of the team meetings. Some members of the team recalled working on this type of document several years ago and Menominee Tribal Administrator Annmarie Johnson located the document which was approved by Legislative Motion in 2011. The document is in need of updating so a workgroup of the Drug Addiction team is working on updating the protocol for presentation to the Legislature at a future meeting.
•Indigenous Pact (IP) Representatives met with Menominee Tribal Administration, Menominee Tribal Clinic, Maehnowesekiyah and Emergency Management on March 3 to begin the Comprehensive Action Plan process. Currently there is a lot of information that is being collected for review of the project representatives from IP. They were on site for a visit with select Tribal representatives during the April 10-14 timeframe. Meetings with the group will be occurring at two-week intervals for project updates. A final report to the Tribal Legislature is anticipated by end of June/Early July.
•Narcan Direct Program is Providing Narcan to local Law Enforcement and to the Tribal Clinic for community distribution. This program also provides Fentanyl test strips for community distribution so people using can test a small amount the drug before using to make sure it doesn’t contain fentanyl. Menominee was slated to receive a Narcan dispensing machine but after further review of the program, the State determined that they would implement an application process to receive the machines. Nick Uttecht from Tribal EMS is heading up the program and working with the Tribal Grant writers to complete the application.
| 
