���� By tailoring its NASD event to the specific needs of its patients, the Chinle Outpatient Facility has been able to use NASD as an effective tool in targeting their Navajo community, an at-risk population.

���� Statistics indicate that Native Americans are unusually susceptible to alcohol abuse. At Chinle Outpatient Treatment Center in Chinle, Arizona, Bessie Tso has made NASD an essential component in her effort to find out why alcoholism has taken such a toll on the community.

���� The Chinle facility serves a Navajo population that ranges from youth to older adults, and treats them for a range of health problems. Tso says that alcoholism has consistently posed a threat to the well being of the community. She�s attempting �to gather information comparing the rate of alcoholism among the Navajo nation with the population in general.� She sees NASD as a valuable research tool for assessing the prevalence of alcoholism among the Navajo community.

���� In order to attract large numbers to the Chinle NASD event, Tso and her staff utilized the customs of the Navajo community. Tso says the Navajo nation is �roughly the size of Maine,� but that it maintains a sense of interconnectedness. The Navajo reservation features eight chapter houses that hold community meetings. Tso challenged her staff to publicize Chinle�s NASD event at the various chapter houses. The staff made a contest of seeing who could attract the most attendees. The result of their competitive spirit was 221 patients screened, making the Chinle facility the third-most successful community site of NASD 2003.

���� All Chinle Treatment Center employees are conversant in both English and Navajo, and the staff is specifically designed to attend to the various needs of the Navajo population. For example, says Tso, the older adult population that is often most at-risk is typically reluctant to receive treatment. The Chinle facility employed a traditional Navajo medicine woman to work in conjunction with the facility�s substance abuse counselor on the NASD program, in order to assuage the fears of some older patients. �The medicine man has all the wisdom and knowledge,� says Tso. �We have one woman on staff that specializes in singing, praying and all the other traditional ceremonies. Some of our older patients are more willing to hear our message if it�s coming from her.�

Sincere thanks and congratulations to the Chinle Treatment Center for their team efforts and creative planning that helped them reach more than 200 people in their Navajo community as part of NASD 2003.