Montana Urban Indian Health group gets $447k to address overdose, chronic pain

The Montana Consortium of Urban Indian Health received $447,881 to improve data access, research and health care for Native Americans.

The funding comes from a $268 million National Institutes of Health project supporting tribally-led research related to overdose, substance use and pain. 

With the funds, the Montana Consortium of Urban Indian Health (MCUIH), in partnership with Urban Indian Organizations and JG Research and Evaluation, will identify patterns of overdose and chronic pain within urban Native populations in Montana. The groups will also implement culturally informed interventions to improve health outcomes. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2021 found that 1,358 American Indian and Alaskan Native people died by overdose — the highest of any racial or ethnic group. 

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Lisa James, development director at MCUIH, said Montana’s five Urban Indian Organizations have been working to address opioid addiction, but implementing effective solutions is “really hard when there’s not enough data.”

“We’re hoping that by pulling this data together, we will help clinics visually see the challenges so that they can build evidence-based programs, which can be tailored to be culturally appropriate, to address them,” she said. 

Brandn Green,

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