State to distribute $500k to tribal nations for drug treatment support

The state announced Thursday that it will distribute $500,000 to Montana’s eight Tribal Nations to help the tribes cope with ongoing drug treatment support.

The money is coming from the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment, or the HEART Fund, which invests $25 million per year to provide for a full continuum of substance use prevention and treatment programs for communities — including $500,000 in grants directly to Tribal Nations each year for substance use disorder prevention; mental health promotion; mental health crisis, treatment, and recovery services; and tobacco prevention and cessation

Each tribal nation will receive $62,500.

“Acting with the urgency the drug crisis requires, we made a historic investment last year in substance abuse prevention and treatment programs through the HEART Fund. Rather than create bigger government, we designed the program to be community-led, because communities know their local needs best,” Gov. Greg Gianforte said in a press release.

According to the release, the Department of Public Health and Human Services will receive a report from each Tribal Nation at the end of July with specific details of how the funds were used.

In the release, Director of Fort Peck’s Spotted Bull Recovery Resource Center, Dale Fourbear said he was thankful for the money.

“We appreciate this funding, and we are committed to improving our chemical dependency/behavioral health continuum of care,” Fourbear said. “This funding will be used to enhance our efforts in providing culturally-based and strength-based chemical dependency/behavioral health services in the areas of prevention, intervention, and support for the communities of the Fort Peck Tribes. There is much work ahead, but this is a great start and we’re grateful for this partnership to tackle such important issues.”