A letter from Esther Lucero, CEO, Seattle Indian Health Board

Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB) recently came to an agreement to sell the Thunderbird Treatment Center facilities as we look to expand and improve our in-patient chemical dependency services.

In order to realize this vision, we will need to put a temporary pause on our in-patient services starting February 1, 2020 until we identify a new location.

We are actively looking for potential locations that will allow us to expand from a 65-bed to a 92-bed facility and better integrate mental health, dental, and medical services, along with the Traditional Indian Medicine services we have already successfully integrated.

We are listening to the needs of our community and tribal partners 

Members of our urban Indian community and tribal partners have expressed the need for in-patient care that also provides services for pregnant women, women with children, individuals with mental health needs, and individuals with substance use disorder needs.

So, we are planning to provide better access to these services for our future Thunderbird relatives (patients). 

We have been fortunate enough to have meetings with several tribes to discuss the needs of their tribal members and potential future partnership opportunities regarding our in-patient chemical dependency services. We also had the privilege to present in front of member tribes of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) about our future in-patient services. ATNI consists of 30+ tribes from Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, and California.

A hard but necessary decision

SIHB’s Board of Directors has been planning to sell the Thunderbird facilities for more than six years because it simply does not meet the expectation that we deem acceptable for our relatives (patients) and staff. 

It is an old facility and limits our ability to serve relatives (patients) with physical disabilities and mental health needs. We looked into repairing or rebuilding but the cost was just too high.

This was not an easy decision because we understand the importance of our in-patient services, and that even a temporary pause holds significance, but we also feel that the sale is a necessary one in order to expand and improve our in-patient services, increase tribal partnership opportunities, and make Thunderbird a sustainable component of SIHB.

We are making plans for our patients, staff, and services

We have developed a transition plan that leads to as little disruption for staff and relatives (patients) as possible, which includes the following actions:

• We are ensuring that the current Thunderbird relatives (patients) will have enough time to complete their treatment.
• We are establishing an aftercare plan with all Thunderbird relatives (patients) to connect them to outpatient care and other services, such as behavioral health and Traditional Indian Medicine.
• We are identifying partners that we feel comfortable referring our relatives (patients) to in order to receive the care they need.
• We are identifying the right facilities for three relatives (patients) who are currently receiving long-term treatment at Thunderbird. 
• We are looking to retain as many of the current Thunderbird staff as possible into roles at our Leschi building.
• We are ramping up our outpatient and behavioral health services to mitigate the impact of the temporary pause on our in-patient services.
• We are finalizing a projected timeline for reopening our in-patient care services. 

We welcome your questions and feedback

It is important to us that we involve the community as we continue to develop future plans and identify a new location for our in-patient chemical dependency services. We will soon be announcing community listening sessions to hear suggestions and ideas for future Thunderbird plans as well.

Thank you for your patience and continued commitment to the health of Native people.

Sincerely,

Esther Lucero
Chief Executive Officer