Pueblo of San Felipe

KEYWAH II is an innovative program at the Pueblo of San Felipe aimed at expanding the efforts of the tribes prior Garrett Lee Smith Grant. The purpose of KEYWAH II is to develop and implement tribal youth suicide prevention and early intervention strategies, grounded in public/private collaboration including the schools, the Tribal Court, San Felipe Family Services, San Felipe Behavioral Health, the University of New Mexico, and other child and youth supporting organizations.

KEYWAH II will implement a continuum of evidence-based and best practices aimed at expanding capacity and creating a prevention-prepared community where youth, families, schools, and communities take action to prevent and reduce mental illness and substance abuse across the lifespan. The population of focus is American Indian (AI) male and female youth ages 10-24 years old at high-risk of suicide, with a priority population of youth who are members of military families, and those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) residing at the Pueblo. Strategies include implementation of the PHQ9 as a universal screening; Mental Health First Aid and Natural Helpers for surveillance, early identification and referral; Project Venture as an outreach and engagement strategy; ALS and wraparound as interventions; and the further development of both local and statewide Suicide Prevention Coalitions.

Project goals and measureable objectives include:

(1) Increase the number of persons in youth-serving organizations trained to identify and refer youth at risk for suicide; (2) Increase the number of clinical service providers trained to assess, manage, and treat youth at risk for suicide; (3) Improve Interagency Collaboration; (4) Increase the outreach, identification of risk, referral and utilization of behavioral health care services; and (5) Develop a sustainability strategy to ensure continuation of the model after grant funding ends and promote tribal system-level change. 280 people will be served annually and 1420 people will be served throughout the lifetime of KEYWAH II.