In October 2021, the Spotted Bull Recovery Resource Center is targeted to open the doors of a new residential treatment program for the Fort Peck community.
Spotted Bull has historically been the Fort Peck Tribes’ outpatient chemical dependency center. In 2016, they applied for a planning grant to start thinking about how they could treat patients in need of on-site inpatient care. Along with the planning grant, we provided technical assistance to help the project leaders think through how to make the new program sustainable in the long term.
Our goal was to figure out how to support the program ourselves instead of having to rely solely on grant funding. Learning about sustainability opened up a whole box of options for us. Now, any project we go after, we think of a way to make it sustainable.
Courage Crawford,
Spotted Bull Recovery Resource Center Program Development Specialist
With a second MHCF grant for project implementation in 2017, Spotted Bull focused on building its capacity to bill insurance for services, upgrading its infrastructure to meet inpatient standards, and developing integrated behavioral health services to make sure that patients’ physical and mental health and well-being are considered and cared for.
Designing the program around sustainable sources of funding opened many new options. What began as a plan to add inpatient treatment to Spotted Bull’s outpatient services grew into a holistic program focused on prevention and culturally appropriate treatment models. Spotted Bull’s focus on prevention led to building a Youth Council made up of young people in the community who are trained as youth peer supporters and work on suicide and methamphetamine prevention. They trained peer support specialists to work with patients after treatment and implemented the Medicine Wheel program to provide a support group for clients and their families.
With this project, we’ve focused more on prevention, which hasn’t been done before. We are holistic thinkers, and we are building the program that incorporates our cultural pieces and starts with our youth at the center and then expands all the way out to our veterans.
Courage Crawford,
Spotted Bull Recovery Resource Center Program Development Specialist
The Spotted Bull Recovery Resource Center’s Director is Dale Four Bear. His direction and vision were instrumental in the program’s success. Read a comprehensive evaluation of the program.
