Starting next year, Medi-Cal will cover traditional healing practices for Native Americans seeking treatment for substance use.
Medi-Cal will expand its coverage to services provided by Native American traditional healers, including herbal medicine, music therapy and spiritual interventions like rituals. It will also cover services provided by natural helpers, including counseling and trauma support. A natural helper is a health advisor who gives recovery and social support in the context of tribal cultures. California is one of four states to cover traditional health care practices, along with Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon where it’s known as Medicaid.
“It’s a very positive thing that Medi-Cal will reimburse community clinics, in particular Indian health centers, for traditional medicine therapies and interventions,” Elisa Alvarado, member of Red Earth Women’s Society, told San José Spotlight. “I worked many years with Medi-Cal as a therapist in mental health, and they make it very complicated and time consuming to use that insurance. So there’s a lot of things that still have to be worked out.”
The state plans to connect with tribes and tribal partners to develop guidance in the coming months.
Native Americans had the highest rates of opioid deaths among any racial group in 2022, and an overall higher rate of substance use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Years of systemic oppression, loss of land and failed government policies have pushed Native Americans to use substances as a coping mechanism, Alvarado said. Poverty, domestic violence, discrimination and high levels of unemployment are all factors that cause Native Americans to turn to drugs and alcohol.
About 1.2% of Santa Clara County’s population identifies as American Indian or Alaskan Native.
“We view addiction as a form of soul loss or spirit loss,” Alvarado said. “The belief is that substances have a spirit also, and that it can move into the emptiness that people are trying to fill.”
Traditional healing then becomes essential to recovering the spirit of a person, as addiction is primarily a spiritual illness, Alvarado said.
Alvarado has been a licensed therapist and natural helper for more than 25 years. She’s assisted people through a gamut of crises, depression and addiction. As a helper, she sees not just the symptoms someone is presenting her, but she also pays attention to the unseen: how generational trauma can affect the conditions one experiences today, how anxiety can cause the body to tense.
Her counseling work centers on listening to what her client is telling her and customizing her approach to meet their needs. That could include a cleansing session, and if needed she will refer them to a sweat lodge, a ceremonial steam session for physical and spiritual purification.
Santa Clara County is located on the ancestral homelands of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, but they are not federally recognized tribes in this region, Sonya Tetnowski, CEO at Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley, said. It’s the only health center in the county providing traditional services to the local Native American community.
“Traditional medicine is at the center of everything we do and informs the organization’s health and human services. It encompasses a wide array of healing practices that are based upon the Indigenous knowledge,” Tetnowski told San José Spotlight. “We plan on expanding our services. However, in its current form (the center) will need to become drug-Medi-Cal certified prior to commencing reimbursable services as required by law.”
These interventions bring a connection to Indigenous roots and a holistic approach to healing. Studies have shown these interventions can help recovery outcomes.
Kiana Maillet, a clinical social worker and licensed therapist and owner of Hiichido Mental Health Therapy Services, said honoring the traditional ways are as valuable as Western medicine.
“Traditional healing is deeply ingrained in our blood memory, our cultures and our communities,” Maillet said. “Without it, we are missing a piece of who we are. As we continue to regain access to traditional ways — ways that our ancestors were punished for in the past — we move forward with healing from historical traumas and improving the health of our future generations.”
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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