Coeur d’ Alene Tribe

The Coeur D’Alene Tribe of Idaho identified their focus on improving systems collaboration across the child welfare, substance abuse and the tribal court systems.

Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s primary goals:

• Create an inventory of needs and community resources available to families impacted by substance abuse and vulnerable to child abuse and neglect.
• Leverage existing resources to promote effective screening and assessment of vulnerable families.
• Create tribally driven protocol of cross case staffing for target population.
• Provide replication efforts for federally recognized tribes in Idaho.
• Utilize community and family input on quality and efficacy of tribal program initiatives.

The major product goals and level of accomplishment were:

• The formation of a team focused on providing services in a wraparound model to meet the needs of children and families impacted by the co-occurring problems of substance abuse and child abuse/neglect.
• The identification of several key linkage points of entry for families in need of screening, assessment, and referral, and established an inventory of needs and community resources available to families impacted by substance abuse and vulnerable to child abuse and neglect.
• Leveraging of existing resources to promote more effective screening and assessment of vulnerable families and a protocol for cross-system case staffing for target families, utilizing community and family input.
• A multi-party release of information form and process specific to tribal systems that accommodates the various needs and regulations of Indian Health Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Tribal Dependency Court.
• A formal model for multidisciplinary team decision-making that was approved by the CDA Tribal Council.
• Other key achievements that resulted from cross-systems collaboration included:
• Improvement in court ordered referral and engagement;
• Reduction in substance-exposed births; and
• An atmosphere of trust and confidence between systems.