Addiction Treatment Leaders Discuss Free Nationwide Program for Native American Families
Checking in with Dr. Sarita McGowan & Cecelia Jayme
This Q&A, facilitated by Jeremiah Gardner and Samantha Moy-Gottfried of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, was originally published for Hazelden Betty Ford’s monthly Recovery Advocacy Update. If you’d like to receive our advocacy emails, subscribe today.
With the ongoing substance use and mental health crisis continuing to disparately impact Native Americans, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation recently launched a culturally specific educational and support program for Native American families — accessible at no cost right in the home, regardless of whether the family’s loved one is in treatment.
Sarita McGowan, EdD, and Cecelia Jayme, MA, MBA, LADC, contributed to the development of the new Virtual Family Program for Native American Families. We checked in to learn more about how they applied Native American cultural and spiritual principles to Hazelden Betty Ford’s existing, highly regarded family program and made modifications in language and content to account for generational trauma and affirm the resilience remembered in the DNA of North America’s First Peoples.
What fuels your passion to do the work you do?
CECELIA: I was gifted with the opportunity to recover many years ago. At the time, there was no specialized programming or culturally sensitive opportunities that I was aware of, so I just had to make the best of what was available to find my path to recovery. Today, because of my personal recovery, and the additional gifts of education and employment, I am able to support change and to see culturally relevant services now become available. Hazelden Betty Ford’s new Virtual Family Program for Native American Families is one of those culturally relevant opportunities. Many Indigenous Nations are developing sustainable treatment and recovery services in their communities, and I love developing relationships to both support them (with services like our free virtual family program) and to receive support from them. We still have much work to do. So what fuels my passion ? The experience of not having those resources myself, the strength I find in supporting one another to build those resources, and the hope that more people will now be able to get what they need, when they need it, where they can access it.
SARITA: Like Cecelia, I am Native American and it is a personal journey of recovery for myself as well. I have 17 years in recovery, and my healthy sober trajectory has been propelled by connecting to my Native American culture and traditions, along with Twelve Step programs. Miracles have happened in my life and the Twelve Step “promises” have — and continue to — come true for me.
Why was it important to create this Family Program? What kind of cultural and spiritual traditions are woven into the program? What are strengths in the Native American culture that can be tapped in healing?
CECELIA: Substance use disorders are having a huge impact on Indigenous communities and families. In Native families, it is difficult to discuss personal matters outside the family or especially with people outside the culture. There is a deeply rooted historical trauma associated with family members being removed and either never coming home or coming home with the internal connection to their cultural heritage negatively altered. Having this new program available, with Native American facilitators, is so important. Being part of a therapy group where your peers look and think in similar ways creates a sacred opportunity. Talking Circles, giving everyone the opportunity to discuss and share uninterrupted, opening and closing gatherings with prayers, community, fellowship — these are all traditions inherent in Native culture. Respecting the wisdom of elders, seeing the value of humans no matter their behavior, believing in second chances — these, too, are woven into our very essence. The Virtual Family Program for Native American Families provides a space for our people to re-engage with their inner wisdom and resilience as well as with other people who understand.
SARITA: As a leader in our industry, Hazelden Betty Ford’s vision is to empower recovery and well-being for all, which means we seek to be a force of healing and hope everywhere, including in Native communities. and to bridge gaps in services. I love that we’re able to integrate cultural and spiritual traditions like the Medicine Wheel into our new program. Healing so often comes from looking within and understanding who we are and how we are connected to everything — an awareness and strength we can find in the knowledge and practice of our traditions and culture. That’s the powerful rationale for culturally specific services.
Why are families such an important constituency to reach with healing, hope and recovery?
CECELIA: Substance use disorder hits families hard. It can affect multiple family members, cross generations, and expose unhealthy patterns running through an entire family system. As the family member of someone with a substance use disorder, we often develop maladaptive tools to manage our lives and to try to manage the lives of our loved ones. We need healing of our own and new skills. It’s also important to recognize that healing seldom occurs in isolation; it usually happens in communities, and a healthy, knowledgeable family is an important part of the community for anyone on the road to recovery. That’s why it’s essential to help family members understand their own feelings and actions; develop new skills and tools; and know they can love deeply and still have boundaries to protect themselves and the family. We help them understand that they do have strengths and resources, and that recovery is not only possible, it’s probable when the whole family system is engaged in the healing.
SARITA: Addiction is a family disease, and ideally, healing and recovery are family processes as well. It’s a beautiful thing to see when families find hope together, and then heal together.
You’ve noted before that there are 574 federally recognized tribes — and more at the state-recognized level. Given the diversity among the population we refer to as “Native American,” what are some of the barriers in reaching those who would benefit from the Virtual Family Program for Native American Families? How can we expand access?
CECELIA: There is a “telegraph” that happens across all the recognized and unrecognized tribes and is the best way for information to get out. What you might call that is “word of mouth.” Basically, if we provide a valuable service and keep our word, the people will hear about it. Our approach is to engage those with whom we already have relationships, and make sure they experience the program in a good way. If they do, they will let others know and we will reach more people. Offering the family program at no cost and virtually limits financial and geographic barriers as well. In time, we hope to help our partners in Indigenous communities develop and implement similar resources in their own regions, which also will expand access.
SARITA: What Cecelia is highlighting most is that trust is a barrier. There has been a history of organizations not clearly meeting Native patients where they are at. It is so important that counselors have an awareness of where a Native American patient’s background, history and prior relationships may have been fractured.
How can we better understand and uplift the work ongoing in tribal communities?
CECELIA: We need to pay attention, and we need to listen. We need to honor the old ways and recognize that while we can be culturally sensitive, we cannot pretend to know or understand everyone. We must not be afraid to ask questions, to challenge our own thinking and carefully consider whether what we are offering will be applicable and accepted by the people who will have to live it in their home community. We can celebrate the successes we see happening across so many of the Indigenous communities, and we can always remember that we have a lot to atone for so we shouldn’t expect instant acceptance. Acceptance will come in time with being trustworthy.
What does advocacy look like to you?
CECELIA: To me, advocacy looks like a singer. What I mean by that is that advocacy is the opportunity for the Creator to speak through our words and through our actions. Some people are gifted singers, and their voices reach across the globe; others sing quietly, and their voices reach only a few. But in either case, the vibration of the music (words and actions) causes a shift to occur in the seen and unseen realms. When the song is for the healing of the people, that is advocacy.
Dr. Sarita McGowan is a substance use disorder counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. A member of the Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, she is a co-lead for the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation’s Virtual Family Program for Native American Families. Dr. McGowan previously worked within the California Department of Corrections as a chaplain supporting both Native Americans and transgender people; and at the Urban Indian Health Center in L.A., serving a population mostly unhoused and living with the impact of jarring health disparities and generational trauma.
Cecelia Jayme is director of clinical services at Hazelden Betty Ford in Center City, Minn. She started with the organization 27 years ago as an intern through the L.C.O. Tribal College. Known widely for her deep wisdom and spiritual essence, Cecelia chairs the Native American Task Force at Hazelden Betty Ford and serves on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. She also serves on the Ethics Committee of the Minnesota Association of Resources for Recovery and Chemical Health, which in 2020 honored her with the Bernie Belling Ethics Award for dedication and commitment to addiction treatment, mental health and recovery communities.
