Pneuma Corporation Village Treatment Program April 1989 FY 90 SOADA GRANT PROPOSAL Pneuma seeks a $797, 855 FY90 grant for a Village Treatment Project which will transport entire villages to St. Mary's for an intensive Family Life and Statement of Need and Project Description..... Program Category, Problem, Population Affected. Problem Extent and Importance, statistics.......... Description of Program Methods Program Methodology and Approach. Resources, Timelines... ..... Budget Summary Forn........... First Year Budget and Narrative. Second Year Budget and Narrative....... Third Year Budget and Narrative............ Third Party Letter, Certification, Assurances. Finance ContactON 2010 N. KOBUR FAIRBANKS AK 99709 PHONE 907-996040 Person: Robert K. Betz, Fairbanks Finance Office PNEUMA CORPORATION P.O. BOX 172 ST. MARY'S, ALASKA 99568 VILLAGE TREATMENT PROJECT FY90 SOADA PROPOSAL SUMMARY Pneuma Corporation seeks a grant for an innovative treatment program as a solution to the number one health problem in Alaska. Many suffer a chronic, progressive, and fatal disease Alcoholism. It is killing the people. Alcohol abuse/alcoholism/codependency affects 100% of the people. Addiction is a root cause of most rural personal tragedies, accidents, suicides, violence, abuse, neglect, sickness, and desperation. It demands a comprehensive prevention and treatment program. Pneuma proposes an innovative, family-oriented, community-wide program of education, prevention, outreach, intervention, and treatment which addresses the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of alcohol problems and co-dependency. The program will transport entire villages to an intensive residential treatment program at Pneuma's facilities in St. Mary's. Village treatment, focusing on each family unit, vill seek to break the cycle of destructive, compulsive behavior while encouraging self-worth and personal development among all family members. Treatment for the alcoholic's addiction and the family's co-dependency will enable the family and community to be supportive of health community life and sobriety. It will change the community's attitude toward alcohol and other drug use. Individualized, culturally sensitive, residential treatment for entire villages vill be directed by professional counselors. Close ties to a counselor will be gradually shifted to self-help fellowships and the community. Individual and group counseling, lecture-discussions, role playing groups, and in-depth searching into self are the heart of the treatment process. A structured aftercare program will provide an ongoing program to help maintain recovery, helping the community to achieve an improved quality of life, a freedom to control their own lives, and improved health among the people. This project holds significant promise of success as entire villages vill make a committment to community change and be given appropriate education and skills to make a lasting impact on the health of the community. It should yield an effective model that can be emulated in other Native communities. A budget is included showing how three year funding would provide sufficient time to demonstrate effectiveness. Pneuma Corporation is a non-profit community organization providing direct services to the residents of Western Alaska. The program is headquartered in St. Mary's and serves villages in the lower Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta area. The program will treat three Alaska Native villages the first year, five the second, and seven the third, with intensive services to 330, 550, and 770 people each year, respectively. (1,650 total people from an area population of 18,000). In-kind and other contributions to the program leave $797,855 for the first year, $985, 179 for the second year, and $1,201,593 for the third year to be funded in this grant application. Pneuma Corporation SOADA PROPOSAL ALCOHOLISM AND CO-DEPENDENCY TREATMENT Village Treatment Grant Application Pneuma Corporation seeks funding for a unique village treatment program addressing Alaska's number one public health problem alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and codependency. The program supplements Pneuma's Family Life Program, the subject of a separate grant request. Full funding of Pneuma's Family Life Program will permit this program to achieve cost savings over costs outlined herein. A general view of the program is revieved, followed by appendices to provide detailed background information. STATEMENT OF NEED AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION A. Nature of the problem for which support is sought. 1. PROGRAM CATEGORY TREATMENT, PREVENTION This project is a innovative communitysponsored project which will provide a family-oriented program of prevention, intervention, and treatment for entire Native Eskimo villages. Villagers will be transported to Pneuma's residential facility for an intensive Alcoholism and Codependency treatment program. Primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention services will be provided targeting alcohol abuse/alcoholism/co-dependency, with attendant collateral health benefits. 2. PROBLEM ADDRESSED The targeted villages demonstrate severe dysfunction due to alcoholism and co-dependency. This project will break the destructive cycle of compulsive behavior exhibited, seeking immediate benefits by the prevention of abuse, violence, accidents, suicide and other forms of self-destructive behavior. The primary disease of alcoholism/addiction and its associated co-dependency are treated. Other diseases caused by such conditions are expected to decline in number and severity. 3. HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED 100% of the Native Alaskans in the targeted villages are adversely affected. Pathological drinking by a family member leads to predictable, compulsive behavior, both in the individual family members and the interactions among them. Many consider abuse, violence, suicide and/or selfdestructive behavior. The Native People have a strong tradition of family life, treating children-as a vital component of that tradition. The dysfunction created by alcoholism tears at the very fabric of the Alaska Native society. Children younger than six demonstrate active alcoholic behavior. The targeted villages have a total population of over 7,000 people, with fever than 400 Whites, located in 25 different villages. The project excludes Bethel and St. Marys's since residential treatment is available in these two area cities. Most targeted villages have populations of about 150 people. Each village treatment effort is expected to treat up to 110 villagers in each treatment session. Targeted villages, unnamed due to confidentiality statutes, have been identified as having as many as 98% of the families having alcoholic members. 4. EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM The problem is all-consuming and devastating. The problem is endemic, perhaps indicative of studies that note a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a growing problem among the targeted villages. Family violence heads the list of social service interventions. It is not unusual for entire villages, including youngsters, to be involved in binge drinking that ends either when the supply of alcohol runs out or the State Troopers are called in to restore order. State health and social service agencies have intervened in particularly difficult situations by removing children from their parents and forcing parents into treatment. A 1988 statement by Dr. John Middaugh, the State Epidemiologist characterized the present status of Alaska Natives as a "health crisis, and a modern plague on our young. The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN)'s President, Janie Leask stated "...it is no exaggeration to say that absent timely and dramatic action, the prognosis for positive change is poor.", referring to a new report detailing the overall status of Alaska Natives. The Alaska State Troopers have reported that alcohol is involved in nearly all village violence, accidental deaths and suicides. In one targeted village over 20% of young native males aged 17-26 died in alcohol-related incidents. Throughout Alaska, 55% of all crime is estimated to be alcohol-related, and 17.5% of all felony cases are drug-related. Drinking and drugging are major factors in 14% of all child abuse cases throughout the state. Alaska's sexual abuse rate of 950 per 100,000 minor children is six times the national average. The Alaska per capita consumption rate for 1986 was 3.51 gallons of alcohol while the U.S. average vas 2.53 gallons per person. 5. IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM Tventy-five years ago there was hope that the Alaska Native would become prominent in the mainstream of Alaska's economy. Today only a few have realized this promise, as many have to combat alcohol problems that consume their lives, and many die at an abnormally young age. Suicide, accidents, homicides and diseases claim too many Native Alaskans. Alcohol abuse and co-dependency are problems that often lead to the final solution of suicide if help is not provided. Bright youngsters often commit suicide because they are the most sensitive. Accidental deaths during individual or village binge drinking` exceed those by suicide, but both are far above national averages. Village isolation and denial systems helps the problem remain hidden. School age children exhibit emotional distress, reflected in poor performance. This will preclude higher education opportunities for many. These children are unable to cope with the fragmented family situations, being unwitting victims of the family codependency. It becomes a vicious cycle, with the children becoming the losers. 6. LEVELS OF MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY- The following information is provided from Alaska State studies and statistical information: A. Nearly all suicides and homicides in the area involve alcohol. AGES 25-29 B. Accidental deaths among Alaska Natives most often involves alcohol. Local sources place the number of such deaths as over four times that from natural causes. C. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), birth defects due to alcohol use during pregnancy costs the State of Alaska $85,000 per patient per year for institutionalization. The FAS prevalence per 1000 live births are: D. The Alaska State Troopers state that there is no serious crime in rural Alaska without alcohol. Alaska Natives account for 34% of the prison population of Alaska although they are only 16% of the population. E. The Anchorage Daily News article "A People in Peril' provides poignant stories of village conditions. Targeted villages have all demonstrated all-inclusive binge drinking and serious health problems due to alcoholism. B. Description of the program methods. 1. PROGRAM METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH Pneuma will provide intervention and treatment, attacking the symptomatic causes of dysfunction. Entire villages will be transported to St. Mary's for treatment for alcoholism, the addiction to other drugs, and codependency. The Children of Alcoholics and Adult Children of Alcoholic syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome will be addressed. Program treatment details are more specific in Pneuma's Family Life Program, but are summarized below: EDUCATION AND PREVENTION includes those activities that are designed to prevent dependency on alcohol and other drugs. OUTREACH AND INTERVENTION activity works to reverse the early stages of dysfunctional drinking. A carefully executed village intervention effort will be aided by volunteers, the schools, troopers, family services, and other agencies. FAMILY TREATMENT will be emphasized. The family of the alcoholic requires specialized co-dependency treatment. Without education about the addiction process, and treatment for co-dependency, the entire family will continue to exhibit distressing symptoms that lead to personal and familial disintegration. Group and individual counseling form the heart of the family treatment process designed to nurture each family member to wholeness, encouraging personal growth and self-worth. CONTINUING CARE OR AFTERCARE follows treatment as an aid to the process of recovery. The village aftercare component will include counselor visitations leading to an on-going, self-directed village aftercare program after six months. The appendix provides a more detailed explanation of these components. 2. PROGRAM STAFFING - A specialized staff will be retained for this project, headed by a Pneuma Rural Program Director. Professional, culturally-sensitive counselors will provide group and individual counseling and therapy sessions assisted by a support staff. The project can be expected to attract extremely qualified and culturally sensitive counselors due to its unique and professionally challenging characteristics. Stable and vell-adjusted native couples will be involved as role models and aides. |