# Our Healing Journey: A Cultural and Traditional Response to the Opioid Epidemic

> **NIH NIH OT2** · EASTERN SHOSHONE TRIBE · 2024 · $418,923

## Abstract

“Our Healing Journey: A Cultural and Traditional Response to the Opioid Epidemic”
Generally, there are greater negative consequences associated with substance misuse among American
Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) adults, even when rates of substance use abstinence are higher across the
two groups (i.e., alcohol). Substance use rates among AI/AN adults compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHW)
vary.  Opioid poisoning on the reservation has increased by 159% from 68 (2019) to 176 and the reservation
has the highest naloxone administration rate in the state, 193.4 per 100,000 people compared with 84.7 per
100,000 people. Locally focused strategies have been identified and implemented to address and alleviate the
impact of the opioid and methamphetamine epidemic on the reservation. At the applicant outpatient treatment
facility, community-focused, culturally grounded, evidence-based, and innovative solutions rooted in the
teachings of the Medicine Wheel have been implemented. The Medicine Wheel is a holistic framework
representing the spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional domains necessary to living a balanced and healthy
life. It signifies the balance in the four directions, the four seasons, and the stages of life, along with
representing the relationship to self, family, community, the environment, and land, as well as the larger
societal context. Therefore, we propose to respond to the public health crisis by building up our research
infrastructure and skills and expanding our culturally centered response by employing community-driven
strategies. Together, our team has the culturally grounded program development, evaluation, and research
experience necessary to complete the activities outlined in the proposal. The proposed aims will follow the
Medicine Wheel teachings and incorporate emotional, physical, mental and spiritual focus areas. The specific
aims include: 1) Mental—Develop the infrastructure to track individual and community outcomes related to this
proposal, including poisonings, treatment seeking, treatment retention, and well-being. 2) Emotional, Physical,
Spiritual—Refine the proposed integration of the EHR, evidence-based practices, cultural, and CAM
evaluations, by assessing community interest in these interventions, identifying barriers to implementation, and
creating a comprehensive model and supporting documents for implementation, and determine outcomes for
analysis. 3) Emotional, Physical, Mental, Spiritual—Pilot our intervention and study the feasibility of our
approach and collect preliminary data for a larger study to examine and measure the menu of strategies and
solutions (e.g., traditional plant medicines, CAM, harm reduction strategies) to address outcomes including but
not limited to anxiety, depression, sleep, substance use and abstinence, fatal and non-fatal drug poisonings,
engagement and retention, pain management, overall feelings of well-being. No previous research has
investigated the combination of traditiona...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10976288
- **Project number:** 1OT2DA061082-01
- **Recipient organization:** EASTERN SHOSHONE TRIBE
- **Principal Investigator:** Katherine Hirchak
- **Activity code:** OT2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $418,923
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10976288

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10976288, Our Healing Journey: A Cultural and Traditional Response to the Opioid Epidemic (1OT2DA061082-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10976288. Licensed CC0.

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