OHSU TO CREATE NATIONAL CENTER TO REDUCE TRIBAL SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Oregon Health & Science University will be home for a new,
multimillion-dollar center aimed at countering alarmingly high levels of
drug and alcohol addiction among Native Americans throughout the United
States and on tribal lands.

The federally funded "One Sky Center" will collect information from scores
of drug- and alcohol-treatment programs working with Native Americans.
Workers hope to discover and share the most effective ways of preventing
and treating substance abuse, said Dr. R. Dale Walker, the center's
executive director and a psychiatrist at Oregon Health & Science University.

The center also aims to continue OHSU's efforts to recruit Native Americans
into health programs, he said.

"I always felt there needed to be a way to coordinate all the health care
work that goes on in the 560 tribes in this country," Walker said. "I think
this project really is going to make a difference."

The initial grant gives OHSU $3 million over three years to establish the
One Sky Center and hire perhaps four to five new staff members. The
university beat out 27 other proposals to get the funding from the federal
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The university hopes to put the center into a new building it is planning
in the South Waterfront district. Lesley Hallick, OHSU's provost, announced
creation of the center at a university board of directors meeting Monday.
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services plans to announce creation
of the center later this month.

Drug and alcohol abuse is a massive problem among Native Americans.
Alcoholism rates are six times higher among Native Americans than the U.S.
average, and drug abuse rates are at least four times higher, Walker said.

At the same time, Native Americans are less likely than average to have
access to health care and to receive -quality mental health care, according
to a U.S. surgeon general's report. Those factors combine with
above-average rates of homelessness, poverty and incarceration to create a
health crisis.

The result: Native Americans, taken together, have a lower life expectancy
than the residents of any country in North or South America. Although that
is not entirely due to drug and alcohol problems, Walker said, the "death
rate from alcohol is certainly remarkably, disgustingly high."

History plays a role: European explorers and traders were "pretty
heavy-drinking folks," Walker said, and introduced alcohol to many native
tribes, creating problems hundreds of years ago. Higher rates of poverty,
traumatic stress and other factors also probably contribute to high
substance abuse, he said.

Some theories about Native American substance abuse remain untested because
of a lack of centralized information -- something the One Sky Center hopes
to address. Open research questions include whether Native Americans have a
genetic predisposition to substance abuse, and why Native American women
have higher abuse rates than men -- the only U.S. ethnic group in which
that is the case.

The center will not directly research those questions at first, said
Walker, who is Cherokee. Rather, it will act as a central clearinghouse for
information, and put researchers involved in scores of separate projects in
touch with each other.

One Sky Center's main goal will be finding out the best ways to stop native
youth and adults from abusing drugs or alcohol, and of treating abuse.

To do this, the center is working with partners in Oregon and nationwide.
For instance, the center will work with White Bison, a Native American-run
nonprofit in Colorado Springs, Colo., that offers adult drug and alcohol
rehabilitation. The Jack Brown Adolescent Treatment Center, near Tahlequah,
Okla., will help coordinate work on youth treatment.

Organizations in Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles will focus on getting
substance-abuse care for Native Americans in urban areas. That is a
challenge because 64 percent of Native Americans are urban, Walker said,
but the federally funded Indian Health Service serves rural areas more than
cities.

Walker said it should be clear within 18 months whether the center will be
a success. He said he hopes to create a network that will expand to include
more research and other mental-health issues, eventually winning more than
$1 million in annual funding.

The program overall makes sense, and Northwest tribal members and residents
stand to gain from the center, said Ed Fox, executive director of the
Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. Fox, whose board represents 43
tribes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, met with Walker several times
during the center's planning.

"I think it'll bring great benefit, and we're happy to be partners with Dr.
Walker," he said.