Category: Health

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News

It has been a hot summer at Tulalip this year, with record-breaking heat during the last week of June reaching over 100-degrees, and multiple 80-degree days so far, people are getting out and having fun in the sun, taking advantage of weather that comes very seldom to the Pacific Northwest.

There are many ways Western Washingtonians can enjoy the clear skies and warm weather and some of those summertime activities include hiking and exploring nature, taking a scenic cruise with the windows down and good tunes blasting, visiting a zoo or a waterpark, catching a Mariners game, floating the river, or enjoying a cookout with your closest friends and family members. 

Tulalip tribal members have additional options to connect with their culture, traditions and people during the summer months such as huckleberry picking, cedar-harvesting, fishing, canoe-pulling, participating in the Salmon Ceremony and Spee-Bi-Dah festivities, and of course you can’t forget, spending the day at Mission Beach. Whether swimming, exercising, relaxing, or simply creating good times with good friends, Mission Beach is a staple destination for the local community, especially when blessed with gorgeous weather.

To ensure the safety of the public, Tulalip Natural Resources has monitored the waters at Mission Beach every summer since 2016, with the exception of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The local waters are integral to the Tulalip people whose ancestors traveled upon and procured nourishment from since time immemorial. With each passing generation, memories are made at Mission Beach by Tulalip youth who splash amongst the waters and laugh along the shoreline. By monitoring the bacteria present in the Mission Beach waters, the Natural Resources department is making sure the kids, elders and everyone in-between can safely continue swimming at the beach. 

“We do the Mission Beach sampling every year during the summer,” said Tulalip Natural Resources Storm Water Planner, Valerie Streeter. “We’re catching the times that people are out in the water and we take a sample in the areas where people will swim.”

Samples are taken from three separate spots along the beach when the tide is in and the average bacteria level is calculated and recorded based on those samples. 

Valerie stated, “If we get too much bacteria, people start to get sick. I heard stories of people who contracted a stomach illness, some had diarrhea or they got a skin rash. Sometimes it can be more serious like typhoid fever. If it’s not healthy, it basically means there’s a lot of sewage in the water and that’s what we’re measuring. We use one particular indicator that the EPA said correlates with human sickness, so that’s why we chose that and that’s really why we’re monitoring the water, trying to protect us humans.”

Over the years, Mission Beach has had great water quality, and the bacteria level never once rose over the 104 bacteria threshold limit. Twice in 2016, during the first year of testing, the bacteria levels reached 80 or above. There were three readings in 2017 that showed the bacteria level exceeded 20. But other than that, all the measurements from 2018, 2019 and 2021 have been low and the bacteria level remained under 20. In fact, the highest it has reached this summer is 14. 

The water samples are collected and recorded by volunteers of the WSU Beach Watchers. Every year prior to summer, Valerie and the Beach Watchers hold a training over the course of one day to teach volunteers how to take accurate bacteria level samples. Samples are taken on a weekly-basis for the duration of summer, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. After the volunteers collect the water sample, they deliver it to the Tulalip Water Quality Lab, based at the Tulalip Fish Hatchery, where Harvey Eastman, the Water Quality Program Manager, grows the bacteria to get an accurate reading of how much bacteria is actually present in the three samples. 

With low bacteria readings so far, the water quality at Mission Beach has been great all summer long. Valerie encourages the community to have some safe, healthy fun and to enjoy some of the remaining days of summer down in the waters of Mission Beach. The volunteer WSU Beach Watchers will continue collecting samples through Labor Day, so be sure to give them a friendly wave and ask any questions if you are feeling inquisitive about the local water quality.  

Valerie shared, “If you’re interested, come out to our training next year and learn how to collect water samples and measure it’s temperature and salinity. It’s not that hard and every time you collect a sample, you get to enjoy a beautiful morning at Mission Beach.”

For more information, please contact Valerie at (360) 716-4629.

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News

Nearly five months ago, The Tulalip Tribal Justice Department introduced a new program for Tulalip parents who are struggling with an addiction. It’s a structured plan for the parent who is ready to kick their habit and regain custody of their children for good. 

Tulalip Family Wellness Court is, in many ways, modeled after the success of the Healing to Wellness Court, only the new program is voluntary-based, without the criminal, mandated-court element. And in addition to helping tribal members get clean and maintain a healthy and sober lifestyle, the Family Wellness Court focuses primarily on one goal, reunifying parents with their children in an effective, timely and responsible manner. 

“We’re one of the first in the nation to be doing this as a tribe because we want our people to be healthy, happy and successful,” said Melissa Johnson, Family Wellness Court Coordinator. “We want people to understand it’s different than the standard dependency proceedings that parents involved with beda?chelh go through. With more frequent review hearings in the drug court model, they get a chance to show their progress in real-time. 

“They tend to get their kids back faster in this type of program because of the intensive case management and the added support. We are still new and maybe people don’t know about us yet, but the program is 100% voluntary. They have to have an open dependency with beda?chelh. And if they want to work on getting their kids back, they can benefit from our team approach.”

That team approach is a big aspect of the Family Wellness Court. The team consists of multiple professionals including Tribal courthouse officials, attorneys, beda?chelh representatives, counselors and recovery specialists. The idea is that with everybody meeting regularly and on the same page, the client will stay in-compliance and will make positive progress in maintaining their sobriety if they know exactly what their team expects from them.

Kelly Prayerwarrior, Family Recovery Support Specialist, explained her role as one of those team members in the Family Wellness Court system, “I’m a parent advocate, I help the parent if they need help finding resources for school or housing, maybe visitation with their kids, or whatever they need to help move them forward so they can get their kids back. I think the Family Wellness Court is really exciting. I like the wrap-around services that we offer. We definitely have a system that’s built for success. If the people come in and really work the system, they will see success.”  

As a member of the team themselves, the clients will receive a personalized game-plan to reunification and their success depends on what they put into the program. If they give it their all and follow the plan to a T, clients will more than likely have their kids back much sooner than they would with the standard custody process. 

“It’s an alternative to the current dependency proceedings,” said Melissa. “I think there is an advantage to the team approach, recognizing the successes, strengths and any issues that may arise in real time, other than waiting. Because with the current dependency proceedings, months can go by between hearings. I think with Family Wellness Court, the courtroom becomes a therapeutic environment. You see that relationship with the judge and the team, it’s not adversarial at all. It’s so much different from when you go to court and everything seems scary. The judge comes off the podium and sits with us.” 

Judge Michelle Demmert presides over each case and builds a strong connection with the clients. She previously mentioned that the Family Wellness Court model is important to the tribal community and that the program is special to her personally. As a recovering addict, Judge Demmert has seen both sides of the coin, and she often goes out of her way to let the client know she understands how hard recovery can be, making her support and encouragement that much more authentic to the parent throughout the hearings. 

“To me, personally, I’m 33 years in recovery,” expressed Judge Demmert.  “I think it’s really important for people to know that about me so that they don’t think I’m judging them like I’ve never been in their situation, when most likely I have. I want them to know that there’s hope, that I believe in them and that I love them.”

So far, the Family Wellness Court has helped multiple parents begin the reunification process. In the very first court hearing, Judge Demmert explained that the clients should expect setbacks and that it’s important to learn from any relapses that may occur.

Melissa explained that up to this point, though there are many clients who are ‘super-compliant’, there are those parents who aren’t in-compliance but she believes that in time, the program will prove to work for them as well.

She stated, “Even the people who aren’t 100% in-compliance, I see them still showing up every week, and that is progress. Just showing up is progress and realizing that we’re still here for them no matter what. We’re all working together, working toward the goal of reunification and for the kids to stay home, to stay out of the system and to stop that cycle. We can help strengthen families and get families reunited faster. All the parents want their kids back, but sometimes it seems so far out of reach. We try to help people with that and bring that support.”

The Family Wellness Court is currently taking on new clients. If you, or anybody you know is ready for a new approach to sobriety and reunification, and are ready and willing to take on the intensive, but evidence-based, model in order to regain custody, please contact Melissa at (360) 716-4764.

By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News

To spread the word about their new program, Family Spirit, Tulalip Family Haven held a giveaway last month, raffling off fun summertime prizes such as sidewalk chalk, a Radio Flyer Wagon and bubble wands for young kiddos and their families. Participants were entered into the raffle simply by calling-in and inquiring about the program and hearing how Family Spirit can assist them along their parenting journey.

Geared toward tribal members who are either moms-to-be, expectant fathers, grandparents or caregivers of a Tulalip child under the age of three, the program is a resource that families can utilize during the early years of their kid’s childhood, to help establish a strong foundation for both the child and parent as they grow together.  

Although Family Spirit is new to the community of Tulalip, the program has actually helped thousands of tribal families across the country since the early nineties. Developed by the John Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, Family Spirit is a home-visiting program that was designed for Natives by Natives, who unfortunately knew all too well about the struggles that many Indigenous families face, largely due to a lack of resources and support for first-time parents and families raising young children.

Sasha Smith, Family Haven’s Family and Youth Support Coordinator, explained, “Family Spirit has been really successful in other tribal communities. It’s evidence-based and the information is culturally relevant, and we really try to intertwine our Tulalip culture and what those experiences look like for us. We talk about historical trauma to get a better understanding of why parents parent the way we do.”

Addressing future participants of Family Spirit, Sasha continued, “Your first meeting would be an opportunity for us to get to know you, what stage of parenting you’re in, a little bit about your hopes and dreams and what parenting looks like for you. And depending on where you are at, we’ll go from there.”

The program’s area of focus surrounds having a safe and healthy pregnancy and subsequently, raising a healthy and happy baby by teaching parents about childbirth, newborn care, and early childhood development. The participants design a personalized parenting plan and Family Spirit provides any necessary and available resources, as well as modern and traditional teachings in regards to parenting. Most importantly they offer their support, helping empower young parents by giving them the tools to ensure their child has everything they need to embark on a bright future.

  “We have lessons that we go by, but if you don’t want to talk about a certain topic right away, we can form it to the way you need it to be,” Sasha stated. “If you don’t want to talk about labor and delivery, we can talk about getting the home ready and what a safe home looks like to bring home baby. Or we can do goalsetting for a healthy family. And at the beginning and the ending of each meeting that we have, we’ll do referrals. So, if they need to get on WIC or they need to contact housing, whatever it is, we can check up on that – just making sure we share those resources with them.”

Along with helping their clients with all their children’s needs, Family Spirit also assists parents by making sure they’re on track to meet their personal life goals, providing referrals for job training, or helping them through the process of beginning or continuing their academic career, and even routinely checking-in with a parent who is in recovery.

Ideally, in a COVID-free world, the Family Spirit paraprofessional (i.e. Sasha) would pay a weekly visit to the client’s home in order to conduct lessons or provide services, for as long as the parent or family requested or until the child reached the age of three. However, since the virus is still present, Sasha explained that for the time being they are willing to make adjustments so that parents, caregivers and families are comfortable when participating in the program. 

“We’ll meet the client wherever they want,” she said. “Primarily we are an in-home service, but it all depends on the comfort level of the parent. We can do Zoom, we can meet in-person at my office, or we can find a place where they’re most comfortable. The kids can be included or not included. It’s really just trying to meet them where they’re at, building that personal connection and learning what they need to grow as a parent.”

To learn more about Family Spirit, please contact Family Haven at (360) 716-4402.

By Kalvin Valdillez

“When the pandemic first hit, we were very concerned about what would happen if our staff members became ill,” expressed Tulalip Clinical Pharmacy Director, Kelvin Lee. “What if we could not continue face-to-face service, what were we going to do? This is basically a solution to that question.”

The iLocalbox is a new and safe option for Tulalip Pharmacy patients who need to pick up their prescriptions after the pharmacy’s standard hours of operations. While utilizing the technology’s large touch screen, patients will be required to verify a number of credentials before receiving their medication from the new distribution system. 

Kelvin said, “This is a new concept. And it is also the very first dispensing kiosk in Washington state. A similar product to this would be the Amazon lockers, which most people are familiar with. When you go to a Whole Foods store, you see those lockers where you can pick up your Amazon orders, and this is kind of equivalent to that. We wanted to have a mechanism to dispense prescriptions to patients after hours and this machine can definitely do that. When they order their prescriptions, they can ask us to put it in the kiosk and they’ll be able to pick it up after hours.”

The kiosk is located right outside the pharmacy’s doors. With over fifty storage units, the iLocalbox can hold any type of medication, including refrigerated items. This was an important feature that the pharmacy sought out, as many of the pharmacy’s patients are being treated for diabetes, and medication such as insulin needs to be stored at a specific temperature in order to be effective. 

“The bigger units are actually refrigerated units,” said Kelvin. “We need those because a lot of our members are diabetic and they need insulin and have medication that needs to be refrigerated. We don’t want to limit this service to just regular prescriptions, and we are happy to have the refrigerated units, so we can store all those items and our diabetic patients can pick-up insulin after hours.” 

The contactless self-service system allows the patients to engage in a fully-digital pharmacy experience, where they can order, pick-up and even pay for their prescriptions with their smart phones. 

“When the prescriptions are ready, they will be getting an e-mail notification from us as well as a text message notification,” Kelvin explained. “On the notification, there is a QR code and they can bring their phone to the kiosk and scan the QR code on the machine. After they sign their names on the screen, the corresponding locker will open-up and they can pick-up their prescription. Safe and secure, because we want to make sure the prescription goes to the right person. Our patients also have the option to pay for their prescription right when they receive the e-mail or text notification, or they can choose to pay for it on location. It’s very convenient.”

Kelvin explained that there are some restrictions to the kiosk’s services and they are listed as follows: 

• Prescriptions will only stay in kiosk for seven days.
• No controlled substances will be allowed in the kiosk.
•  Patient must receive consultation before they are allowed to pick up new prescriptions.
• No pick up from 12am – 7am.
• This service is straightly for patients who cannot make it to the pharmacy during regular business hours. Please refrain from ordering kiosk service if you can pick up during regular hours as there are only limited number of lockers available.

To learn more about the iLocalbox, please contact the Tulalip Clinical Pharmacy at (360) 716-2600.