Behavioral health unit serving tribes to be built in April

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – Federal health officials are on track to increase the behavioral health services offered to enrolled members of Native American tribes in western South Dakota with the construction of a new intensive outpatient therapy center next month.

The Indian Health Service’s move to install the modular building on the campus of an existing Rapid City hospital comes after the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation saw at least 15 suicides last year.

But tribal officials and other stakeholders believe it’s a poor location. A trip to Rapid City can be longer than 170 miles from some communities on Pine Ridge and even longer from Rosebud and some Cheyenne River communities.

O.J. Semans with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Health Board says more people would use the facility if it was closer to the reservation.