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|  | This SiteMental Health at HHSAll Mental HealthOnline PublicationsOrder PublicationsNational Library of MedicineNational Academies PressPublications Homepageprinter friendly page e-mail this pagebookmark this pageshopping cart current or new account |  | The Journey Of Native American People with Serious Mental IllnessExecutive Summary
**Table of Contents**

Conference OverviewGroup WorkshopsCommon Themes, Specific Issues and Related Recommendations - Theme ACommon Themes, Specific Issues and Related Recommendations - Theme BCommon Themes, Specific Issues and Related Recommendations - Theme CCommon Themes, Specific Issues and Related Recommendations - Theme DCommon Themes, Specific Issues and Related Recommendations - Theme EState GroupsResolution 1Resolution 2Conclusions
Background and Purpose of the Conference
American Indians and Alaska Natives, like other persons, suffer and array of illness, including serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness, and severe depression. Delivery of mental health services to Native Americans has been hampered by problems at several different levels. At the system level, there is often lack of clarity regarding the roles and responsibilities that the Indian Health Service (IHS), State mental health departments, tribes, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) should assume in working with Native Americans who have serious mental illnesses. There are few if any specific, written working agreements between States, IHS, and tribal groups regarding mental health service delivery. At the level of direct service provision, there are issues of geographic isolation of services; there are also concerns about the cultural competence of non-Indian service providers, and about the levels of support for traditional Native American healing approaches in mental health service systems.

Aware of the above problems, several leaders from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), the Mental Health Program of the Indian Health Service and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) joined with others in organizing the first national conference on Native American people with serious mental illness, in order to bring together State, tribal and IHS mental health officials, providers, families, and consumers, to discuss the challenges that face Federal agencies and the Indian nations. Never before had these key parties come together to tackle mental health service delivery issues for Native Americans, to work toward a common understanding of the barriers to effective mental health care and, even more importantly, to develop strategies and recommendations for over-coming those barriers and for working together to ensure a coordinated, efficient, culturally relevant system of care. *Put another way, the goal of the conference was to create mechanisms to implement the shared vision of an effective, comprehensive service delivery system for Native Americans with serious and persistent mental illness.* |  |
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