Behavioral and Community Health Department

The Behavioral Health Department focuses on reducing behaviors that lead to adverse outcomes through education, outreach, and support. Our vision is to integrate behavioral health within the structure of health services, foster collaborative support between tribes for health and wellness that is holistic, and meet the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs of tribal communities, families, and individuals.

The Department promotes the importance of involving tribal communities, youth leadership, spiritual leaders, cultural leaders, parents/guardians, and elders in all levels of research, planning, and service delivery to create and/or support culturally-based community prevention, intervention, and postvention programs.

What We Do

As a team, we hope to provide quality services to tribes in the Great Plains region by helping identify and assess tribal health and wellness needs regarding behavioral health. This in turn will help us enhance working relationships with tribal health, behavioral health, and substance abuse programs and provide training, technical assistance, and resources to increase tribal behavioral health and substance abuse prevention capacity.

Community Behavioral Programs

Outpatient Behavioral Health at Oyate Health Center

The Oyate Health Center's Behavioral Health Department at LaCrosse is an outpatient and integrative health care model that believes that patient mental health is directly tied to individual and community health. The outpatient clinic focuses on reducing behaviors that lead to adverse outcomes through clinical treatment and support froma a caring and dedicated staff.

Programs at OHC Behavioral Health

Circles of Care

Contact Information

Tosa Two Heart – Director of Community Behavioral Health
Rebecca Leslie LPC-MH LAC – Clinical Program Director (OHC)

Connecting With Our Youth

Connecting With Our Youth (CWOY) is a values-based initiative to reduce the rate of suicide for Native American youth in the He Sapa catchment area. CWOY is informed by Lakota culture values of caring and compassion for all (Waúŋšila) and youth are sacred (Wakȟáŋyeža) to strengthen connections between American Indian youth and their culture.

Native Connections - Suicide Prevention

The Native Connections Program provides information on suicide prevention and substance use disorder for the Crow Creek Sioux Reservation.

Opioid Response Program

The Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board’s (GPTCHB) Great Plains Tribal Opioid Response (GPTOR) program addresses the opioid crisis and stimulant misuse in the Great Plains Area

Circles of Care

The Community Support Groups, offered by OHC at the Lacrosse location, serve as training for friends and family members concerned about loved ones who live with a substance use disorder. The program is based on the Community Reinforcement and Family Training (CRAFT) model, a highly effective, evidence-based, motivational program that impacts communities and families in multiple areas of their lives.