Lawmakers upset about Rocky Boy suicide prevention grant

Local lawmakers are expressing dismay after the state said it will spend nearly half of the $250,000 grant aimed at combating suicide among American Indian youth to hire a contractor.

State Sen. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, chair of the state Legislature’s Interim Tribal Relations Committee, received a letter from Richard Opper, director of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, last Wednesday.

The letter was in response to one sent to DPHHS by the committee at its March meeting in Box Elder, asking the state to reconsider spending $100,000 on a contractor to determine

best practices in suicide prevention and bring together a coalition to craft a strategic plan.

“We believe our approach to investing the funding honors the extensive feedback we received and will complement the work that is being done in tribal communities,” Opper said.

“I’m very disappointed,” Windy Boy said Monday in response to the letter.

He said reservations had programs that were already on board but needed funding.

The committee believed the money would be more effectively spent at the local level, in supplementing existing programs through grants to tribal communities and other organizations.

Windy Boy said it will likely be very difficult to convince fellow lawmakers to appropriate more money. The committee in its letter to Opper shared that concern, given the reduction in gas and oil revenue that will likely be coming into the state.

“Hiring a contractor for $100,000 to dream up a one-size-fits-all program, rather than financially supporting organic efforts already in place, is a slap in the face to those who have invested time and effort to build relationships with hurting people in their communities,” said state Sen. Kris Hansen, R-Havre, also a member of the committee.

Hansen suggested the committee send the letter after Lesa Evers, tribal relations managers at DPHHS, appeared before the committee to detail how the state plans to spend the money approved during the 2015 legislative session.

Montana is routinely at the top in surveys of states with the most suicides. Though they make up 6 percent of the population in Montana, a 2014 national vital statistics report puts the suicide rate for American Indians at 26.4 per 100,000. In Montana,it is also the number two cause of preventable death for adolescents age 15-24.

The statistics show that during the 12 months a 2014 survey was being completed, 15.1 percent of American Indian students on reservations had attempted suicide at least once, as did 20.6 percent of those in urban areas.

“We don’t need a contractor to tell us what best practices are,” Hansen said at the meeting after the letter was endorsed by the eight-member bipartisan committee.

In the letter signed by Windy Boy, the committee said they heard “loudly and repeatedly that grants are the preferred choice.”

In his letter, Opper defended DPHHS’ approach, saying the DPHHS has been inclusive and has sought advice from many stakeholders, including those within all eight American Indian communities in Montana.

The letter said once the strategic plan is completed there would be flexibility to allow the awarding of grants to tribes and other organizations.

Hansen said the committee is now talking among itself to see what, if any, further action can be taken.