On April 4, the Osage Nation plans to break ground on a new Counseling Center Complex in Pawhuska with transitional living facilities to serve both adolescents and adults for substance use, counseling and mental health treatments.
The groundbreaking commemoration is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the location site, 436 Elks Lodge Rd., where construction will take place. ON government and project officials will be at the event which marks the construction start on the upcoming Counseling Center and PRT facilities.
“Living well requires good health. Next week, on April 4, we will break ground for construction of the much-needed Primary Residential Treatment facility, Transitional Living Center, and related buildings,” Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said in his 2023 State of the Nation address to the Eighth ON Congress on March 27. “These will greatly step up our capacity to confront the pains of depression, drug addictions, alcoholism, and anxieties. Our existing programs grappling with these serious matters will find the new investment a great assistance to their efforts.”
In 2021, the Seventh ON Congress appropriated $15,399,736 million of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for land purchase and project costs. ARPA funds are used due to behavioral health needs and public health impacts exacerbated by the pandemic, according to a news release.
According to the Nation, the Counseling Center project includes new access roads with approximately 22,500 square feet of building-related infrastructure with five new facilities:
- Men’s PRT facility (approximately 4,500 square feet)
- Women’s PRT facility (approximately 4,000 square feet)
- Adolescent PRT (approximately 6,000 square feet)
- Men’s and Women’s Transitional Living (approximately 3,000 square feet)
- Outpatient Building (approximately 5,000 square feet)
The release also states: “The Osage Nation Counseling Center is comprised of a multidisciplinary team focusing on comprehensive services specific to women, men, children, and adolescents. Counseling services include: mental health, substance use, marriage and family, school-based, and trauma-focused. Peer recovery and case management services include: assistance with legal problems, medical care, social services, financial training, social support, housing assistance, literacy training, and education needs. Residential services include: a 60-day treatment focusing on relapse prevention, anger management, Wellbriety, the 12-steps, and trauma, with an emphasis on cultural connection.”
Outpatient services are available to all members of the community, while residential services are exclusively available to members of any federally recognized Tribe.
For more information about ON Counseling Center services, visit: https://www.osagenation-nsn.gov/services/counseling-center
