NACA offers strengths-based outpatient services for youth and adults in individual, family and group settings.
NACA’s Behavioral Health Center provides the following behavioral health care in our facilities:
- Assessment and Evaluation
- Individual and Group Psychotherapy
- Substance Use (chemical dependency) Counseling
- Mental Health Counseling
- Traditional and Western Counseling Techniques
- Medication Evaluation and Management
- Outpatient Treatment
NACA offers strengths-based outpatient services for youth and adults in individual, family and group settings. Counseling is offered for domestic violence (DV), depression, grief, trauma, self-esteem, coping skills, spiritual distress, managing one’s lifestyle and other issues. We also offer prevention programs, including Reach Ur Life Suicide Prevention, and Pathways – After School Program for Youth. NACA is in the process of credentialing with CAQH (Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare), and soon all NACA’s independently licensed therapists will be credentialed through this organization.
The Native Connections Program works collaboratively with community youth, families and community leaders, alongside local youth serving agencies in the Flagstaff area. This program designs a youth-guided plan of action that focuses on improvements to the local mental health/behavioral health system in an effort to reduce suicidal behavior, substance use and some impacts of trauma, while promoting mental health well-being among youth through 24 years old.
NACA’s Substance Abuse Program (SAP) is currently facilitating all groups and classes strictly through Zoom. The SAP program’s goal, first and foremost, is to assist our community members in maintaining or achieving sobriety through supportive services, while simultaneously working to alleviate legal issues by providing clients group and individual therapy. Our services include, but are not limited to:
- Engaging in individual substance abuse counseling with clients who are self-referred and hoping to start/continue sobriety.
- Providing SAP screenings required by the DM, ADOT, courts and parole/probation officers.
- Facilitating revocations and working with clients to get licenses reinstated, when deemed appropriate.
- Fulfilling court required 16-hour DUI education classes.
- Providing Early Recovery (ER) and Relapse Prevention (RP) groups that provide a space for clients to gain education on substances, while learning life habits beneficial to their sobriety.
- Giving clients the opportunity to gain traditional knowledge on mental health and substances with our Talking Circles.
- New time slots are being offered for DV groups in order to provide more opportunities for group members who have work or other demands on their time. NACA’s Behavioral Health Extended Services include DUI Services, Revocation Services, Intimate Partner Violence Services, Talking Circle, and Healing Circle – Bereavement Virtual Support Group.
NACA Mental Health Providers
NACA Behavioral Health also recently hired a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. Cheryl Carstens is working with the coordinator of Phoenix Mental Health and Wellness to ensure that all the patients seen under NACA are transitioned to her care if they choose to do so. Jonathan Yellowhair hosts informal basketball and art groups to allow SAP and DV group members to meet each other in a different and relaxed setting. Christopher David led a Winter Flute Family Workshop, which met every Tuesday in February, and the first Tuesday in March. The focus of the sessions was on emotional regulation through deep breathing and mindfulness. Each participant built their own flute.
Gary Davis has been involved with a new program in collaboration with Tuba City Regional Health Care Center (TCRHCC). The program is called “Community Counseling Center” (CCC) with Joe Baca. Joe goes into schools in the Tuba City area and teaches Life Skills, Conflict Resolution, Problem-Solving and Coping with Loss to young people in that area.
To learn more about NACA Behavioral Health or schedule your screening session, call the Behavioral Health Center at 928-773-1245. FBN
By Almalía Berríos-Payton
Almalia Berrios-Payton is the marketing and public relations officer for Native Americans for Community Action (NACA) and a member of the Lenca and Pipil tribes from El Salvador. Berríos-Payton earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and strategic communications at Northern Arizona University and can be reached at almaliabp@nacainc.org.
NACA’s Family Health Center currently offers the seasonal flu vaccine, the COVID-19 Moderna and Pfizer primary vaccines, and the COVID-19 bivalent booster. For more information or to schedule an appointment, call 928-773-1245.