The Trainers View
November 2024
.jpg)
Kevin Simmons, MS
Kevin Simmons, trainer for the Oregon Motivational Interviewing project with the Native Center for Behavioral Health, is an enrolled member with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a descendent of the Muckleshoot tribe. Kevin has several years of experience as an advocate for programs, services, and communities that strengthen tribal families in a number of areas. He is also a PhD student at the University of Oregon with research interests in culturally based pedagogy, adaptations of evidence based practices, and improving outcomes for American Indian/Alaskan Native people, families, and communities. As a father of 5 children, Kevin believes his greatest achievements are centered on family (tilixam) life.
By Kevin Simmons, MS
Perspective on Quilts and Motivational Interviewing: Oregon Department of Human Services Tribal State ICWA Conference
The MI team gladly accepted an invitation from the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe’s Social Services team to attend and participate in the 2024 ODHS Tribal-State ICWA Conference held at 7 Feathers Casino October 15 -17, 2024. Our main priorities were to connect with tribal personnel who attended one of our MI trainings and to promote the program within both the tribal and state systems attending the conference. We accomplished both objectives and then some.
The 3-day conference focusing on the Indian Child Welfare Act and all things Tribal Child Welfare included keynote addresses from Albert Pooley (Hopi/Nav Aj Ajo), executive director of the National Native American Fatherhood and Families Association (NAFFA); Dr. Sarah Kastelic (Alutiiq), executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA); and a performance and keynote address from Christian Takes Gun Parrish (Apsáalooke), otherwise known as “Supaman.” The workshop line-up provided state and tribal child welfare personnel the opportunity to experience and learn new skills, information, and approaches in working with Native families.
Not to overshadow all the great talks, information, and learning that took place at the conference, our MI team was also able to participate in the conference in our own special way. ODHS Federal Policy Analyst and valued MI team member Aj Goins provided her own teaching and information at the conference.
Since early in the MI project (2022–2023), Aj has been quietly sharing her talent and passion for quilting. It started with a few text messages and pictures of beautifully quilted fabrics. The messages generally read, “Hello, I’ve been working on this quilt for so and so, what do you think?” Each message and picture came with a detailed description as to why colors and patterns remind her of a particular person. The meanings and references behind each quilt were amazing.
This past summer, Aj began giving the quilts she made as gifts to tribal child welfare leadership in the state of Oregon. Watching the reactions of people receiving their quilts and explanations was phenomenal to say the least; people responded with tears, hugs, laughter, and sheer amazement in most cases. The tribal-state ICWA conference presented another opportunity for Aj to bestow gifts and quilts to people. Here are a few takeaways from participating in Aj’s gift giving:
First, Aj is wonderfully talented and leads her parts of the project with care, love, and compassion. She consistently places the needs of the project and those it serves as the highest priority. The people receiving the quilts (most of them tribal child welfare leadership in Oregon) were being recognized because they all committed to partnering in the MI project in providing evidence-based services to families and communities. Aj reminds us regularly that tribal child welfare is a dynamic world that changes daily if not more frequently; she embodies the spirit of meeting people and communities where they are. And Aj leads from the perspective that our work is about empowering tribal child welfare and tribal communities to develop their own MI practices and programs.
While the gifts and quilts are absolutely amazing, on one level they also embody the foundational components of MI: compassion, acceptance, partnership, and empowerment (recognition in some communities). We take this time to extend our gratitude for our tribal partners and all the wonderful work they are doing in their communities!
From Our Director
September 2024
By Anne Helene Skinstad, PhD
Director, Native Center for Behavioral Health
The Native Center for Behavioral Health (NCBH) is very excited to work with tribal communities across the State of Oregon and their Child Welfare organizations, to provide training and implementation support for Motivational Interviewing (MI). We have a long history of providing and implementation support to tribal and urban Indian organizations interested in becoming proficient in the use of MI.
We have been fortunate to work with more than 300 tribal communities and many more urban Indian communities across the country, especially since 2012 when we were awarded the first National American Indian and Alaska Native Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC). In 2018 the NCBH was expanded to include the National AI/AN Mental Health TTC, and the National AI/AN Prevention TTC. Our three TTCs are no longer funded, but I encourage you to follow the link to the farewell newsletter we just published. We now focus our efforts on three big projects: the National AI/AN Childhood Traumatic Stress Treatment and Service Adaptation Center, CAT II; the Mental Health Awareness Training program in Sioux City, Iowa; and the State of Oregon and Tribal Child Welfare Training and Consultation: Breathing Life into Motivational Interviewing.
Some of you might not know us and our NCBH, but we have been around for quite some time with different names and projects. The NCBH started as a regional ATTC under the name the Prairielands ATTC (from 1998–2012), serving Upper Midwest states: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Our programming was developed based on expressed needs from providers, formal needs assessments studies, and suggestions from our advisory boards. Four focus areas/centers of excellence were developed in the early days, with services continuing to this day:
-
Substance use disorders (SUD) in Native communities
-
SUD and co-occurring mental health disorders and problem gambling
-
SUD in women, and
-
4) SUD in LGBTQ+ communities. Our current center has adapted much of our early work to the needs of Native and Urban Indian communities.
We started early to implement MI. The first state we worked with was North Dakota, which wanted all behavioral health providers to use MI. We soon discovered that we needed to accommodate the training of MI to the needs of tribal and urban Indian communities, with specific focus on cultural adaptation of MI. Hence, we developed the Spirit of Communication: Motivational Interviewing and Traditional Teachings. Candace Peters, MA, and Ed Parsells, BA, (Cheyenne River Sioux) were the lead trainers for this curriculum at the time. Shortly after our first introduction of the program, we started working with Kathy Tomlin, PhD, (Cheyenne Sioux Tribe) who was the first Native professional trained by clinical psychologist William R. Miller, who first described MI in 1983 and later collaborated on developing the practice. Dr. Tomlin became our Lead Trainer, and is now in the process of revising the content based on the 4th edition of MI, as well as including more cultural knowledge and Indigenous learning principles.
Why did we focus so much on MI? First of all, tribal members felt that this method is most in tune with Native ways of communicating, but they also expressed a need for a more Indigenous-friendly learning experience; hence our most recent curriculum is much more based on Indigenous learning principles, thanks in large part to Kevin Simmons' input to the process.
Even though MI is the closest evidence-based-practice (EBP) to Native ways of communicating, it is still quite challenging to learn and maintain. There are many reasons for this; one, of course, is the turnover in staff experienced all over the country. In addition, if the method is not continually reviewed and discussed, it is very easy to fall back to old ways of handling a stressful situation. We have introduced different ways of maintaining new knowledge and one way is to develop trainers/champions (The Champion Program) who can continue to train and support staff in their efforts to use MI in their day-to-day work. Another method we strongly support is to provide regular supervision to staff in Child Welfare, in addition to administrative supervision. Finally, we always want to listen to providers and adjust our approach to the communities we work with, and we do that using Tribally Driven Community-Based Participatory Research and Programming (TD-CBPR/P).
We are thrilled to work with so many tribal and urban Indian communities across the State of Oregon and together we will develop the first statewide implementation program in tribal and urban Indian communities in the country.
The Trainer's View
July 2024
.jpg)
Kevin Simmons, MS
Kevin Simmons, trainer for the Oregon Motivational Interviewing project with the Native Center for Behavioral Health, is an enrolled member with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a descendent of the Muckleshoot tribe. Kevin has several years of experience as an advocate for programs, services, and communities that strengthen tribal families in a number of areas. He is also a PhD student at the University of Oregon with research interests in culturally based pedagogy, adaptations of evidence based practices, and improving outcomes for American Indian/Alaskan Native people, families, and communities. As a father of 5 children, Kevin believes his greatest achievements are centered on family (tilixam) life.
By Kevin Simmons, MS
Our Oregon Motivational Interviewing (MI) project team developed from humble beginnings. The focus and intent has always been to have an impact in reducing the number of American Indian and Alaskan Native children and families that experience the foster care and child welfare systems. As an evidence-based practice MI is a valuable tool for child welfare personnel to build better relationships with the families being served. What I have experienced is that MI is a great tool and practice for Native communities to deliver culturally informed and culturally sustaining services to their people.
Our team has trained in countless Native communities in Oregon and beyond since our modest beginnings in November 2021. I am grateful for all the communities who have invited us into their classrooms, community centers, casinos, and the countless other locations we have trained. No matter the location, setting, and or community, MI is about the people! The countless tribal child welfare workers, behavioral health clinicians, substance abuse counselors, tribal prevention specialists, educators, police officers, and tribal leaders make our trainings and offerings special.
I am confident in saying that tribal personnel are the most thoughtful, giving, and dedicated ambassadors for the evolving practice of MI. I often find myself thinking about and referencing the numerous tribal personnel we’ve met along the way and their bits of wisdom shared during our trainings. Our project team and trainers are continuously reminded that our MI work is about the tribal communities and personnel we partner with daily. It is in the spirit of partnership, acceptance, empowerment, and compassion that our MI journey has built a foundation. Our team has been taught, instructed, honored, listened too, and made to feel like relatives in many instances. Our shared spaces have provided us all an opportunity to learn together, where every person and voice is honored as a valuable member of this tribal MI community that were all building together. This MI community stretches from the tribal and aboriginal lands of Oregon Indian Country to the rolling hills and valleys of Iowa.
University of Iowa’s Native Center for Behavioral Health was awarded a contract through the Oregon Department of Human Services to assist tribal child welfare programs from the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon learn and implement MI into practice. Through this contract, our team continues to offer Oregon’s tribal child welfare personnel the opportunity to learn and practice MI. It is through the planning and development of MI in tribal communities in Oregon that we come to understand that it our goal is about the people.
We invite you to continue your MI journey in the hopes that we all can have an impact on the communities and people we love and serve.