General Council briefed on Health & Wellness

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Health Services Executive Director Kelly Rowe briefed General Council on accomplishments her department made during the past year as well as future plans during a Sunday, Jan 5, General Council meeting.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to be able to serve my Tribe every year,” she said. “I’ve come to talk about the things that we’ve accomplished at Health & Wellness. I lead a great team, very hard-working, intelligent and innovative people who provide these services and programs dedicated to our membership.”

Rowe said that Health & Wellness continues to grow with the opening of the Cheryle A. Kennedy Public Health Clinic, expanding mental health services in Salem, adding a dietician, launching two new mobile medication assisted treatment units and opening Black Bear Foster Care Lodge on the Tribal campus.  

In total, the department hired 58 new employees in 2024.

The department’s tush lamatsin (Good Medicine) events have continued to increase in popularity, with approximately 4,600 participants. These include monthly food distributions with 6,750 boxes given out to the Tribal community.

Lastly, Health & Wellness transitioned from Shasta Administrative Services to Forest County Potawatomi for its Skookum Tribal member healthcare.

During her presentation, Rowe shared several other accomplishments of 2024, one of which was the department becoming self-sufficient, a goal for several years. This is due largely to third-party revenue. Being self-sufficient means that the department doesn’t utilize any gaming revenue to run its services for the Tribe.

“There’s been a lot of talk about third-party revenue and how we’ve become self-sufficient,” she said. “Third-party revenue is something that is anytime we bill for our services outside of the different programs that we provide…These are services that we send out to third-party billers such as insurance or any type of payor that will provide the payout for these services that we provide to our members or other Natives. Revenue must be used for improvements to Tribal health programs.”

Other highlights of the presentation include:

Residential treatment and recovery services: The Tribe has been renovating the former Sheridan Country Inn for approximately a year and plans to offer inpatient addiction treatment and intensive outpatient services.

“It will mean no more fighting for beds,” Rowe said. “It will expand our ability to offer these services.”

There will be a total of 25 beds available for Tribal members battling addiction. The facility will also include a workout room, family visitation room, communal dining  and group areas. A cultural practice area is being developed outside.

“This gives us the ability to have control over what we can do and plays into having this whole continuum of care,” she said.

Salem detox clinic: This will be housed on the top floor of Great Circle Recovery in Salem. The expected opening date is the winter of this year. It will serve Grand Ronde Tribal members and other Natives to start with and expand to non-Natives if there are extra beds available.

“My intent is to serve our populations because we are the ones fighting the hardest for those beds,” Rowe said.  

Community Transitions Program: This program offers temporary, supportive housing in both group and private settings for Tribal members seeking to make the transition into living independently. There are four different homes on four properties in Grand Ronde and one apartment complex in Salem near Great Circle Recovery with six, one-bedroom/one-bath units. These provide for a variety of housing needs and offer services which range from building daily living skills and offering mental health supports, to cultural opportunities and preparation for independent living.

Good Medicine events: These is the second full year of the events and the goal has been trying to improve each one. There is a tentative calendar for 2025 on the Health & Wellness Facebook page. Approximately 4,600 people attended the events in 2024.

“These are events that have really brought the community in and we’ve been able to create momentum for new events,” Rowe said.

After the 26-minute presentation, Rowe took 13 questions and comments from the audience.

“Thank you for your report and for being here,” Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy said.

In other action, Shawn Haggerty, Bill Stephens, Kathie Levine, Dustin Leno and Diane Smith won the $50 door prizes. Claudia Leno, David Leno and Darla Reynvaan won the $100 door prizes.

The next General Council meeting will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, with a tentative location at the Monarch Hotel & Conference Center, 12566 SE 93^rd Ave., in person and via Zoom. The program report will be the Tribal Housing Department.

To watch the entire meeting, visit the Tribal government’s website at www.grandronde.org and click on the Videos tab.