State, Local, and Tribal Collaboration Project

Overview

Partnership and collaboration between Native and non-Native entities are incredibly important. Good collaboration can create opportunities and lead to mutual benefit for all partners, more effective service of mutual target populations, and more effective work with less duplication and better outcomes.  

Unfortunately, challenges around collaboration and partnerships between Native and non-Native entities are common nationwide and span many areas of work including the health sector. Partnerships may be limited, problematic, or simply not exist. These partnership deficits have many negative impacts. Valuable opportunities can be missed (e.g., opportunities for pooling resources), and harm can be done (e.g., a community is not adequately served). Additionally, the interconnected nature of health issues means the impacts of partnership and collaboration extend beyond reservation borders and other jurisdictions, as exemplified by the spread of COVID. Ultimately, recognizing and addressing partnership challenges is essential for fostering healthier, more resilient communities and achieving meaningful progress. 

Funded by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) through their Tribal Medication-Assisted Treatment (TMAT) Project, the Initiative for California American Indian Health Research and Evaluation (I-CAIHRE) at the University of Southern California (USC) launched an effort to learn more about these collaboration challenges to support California Tribal and Urban Indian communities. While many areas of work could benefit from improved Native (i.e. Tribal and Urban Indian populations) and non-Native collaboration (e.g. county level, state level, local level), this project is focused on understanding how to address these challenges in the context of substance use disorder (SUD), opioid use disorder (OUD), and health systems.