Wichita and Affiliated Tribes

The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, located in Anadarko, Oklahoma, will provide youth suicide prevention programming to Wichita Tribal members and American Indian youth in Caddo County. The service area will also include neighboring counties of Blaine, Canadian, Custer, Grady, and Washita although the area of focus will be Caddo County. The purpose of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita) Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention & Surveillance Project is to identify American Indian/Alaskan Native youth with risk factors for suicide, and engage these youth in comprehensive, culturally relevant services to prevent suicide attempts and completions. This project will achieve its purpose through a collective community-based surveillance effort, which includes components of community outreach and awareness, coalition development, system-wide training, screening, assessment, care coordination, comprehensive follow-up services, data collection, and ongoing quality improvement.

The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes will utilize current programs that heavily serve youth and existing relationships with service providers to accomplish the goals set forth below:

• Goal 1: Increase awareness and understanding of suicide while concurrently reducing stigma associated with suicide through advisory board development and public education.
• Goal 2: Engage the tribal community and partnering entities while developing support for the Wichita Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention and Surveillance program through coalition development, training, and outreach.
• Goal 3: Develop the workforce to ensure the effective assessment and treatment of youth at-risk of suicide through expert training.
• Goal 4: Implement community-based surveillance programming to identify at-risk youth and connect youth with Wichita Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention and Surveillance project.
• Goal 5: Ensure effective treatment and coordination of care through comprehensive case management and follow up services.
• Goal 6: Conduct surveillance and quality improvement on suicide attempts and completions

The Wichita Tribal Youth Suicide Prevention and Surveillance Program will identify, refer, follow-up and serve American Indian youth ages 10-24 with the intent to promote protective factors and reduce the risk of suicide in the community.