In 2019, the Great Plains Tribal Leaders’ Health Board conducted a community needs assessment to determine what types of services the Rapid City Native American community wanted to be improved. When the results were tallied, it was clear, the community wanted an expansion of behavioral health services.
Since then, the Oyate Health Center has completely revamped and improved patient access to mental health providers by expanding its team from 3 members (under the Indian Health Service) to 17 (under the management of the GPTLHB).
The Oyate Health Center’s Behavioral Health department has been included in the new integrative healthcare model. Each of our patient’s primary care teams includes a provider from behavioral health. It is our belief that the mental health of our patients is directly tied to individual and community health. Additionally, we do all we can to help our patients gain access to additional social service programs that can contribute to improvements in their health. We also use telehealth to access additional providers.
