Dr. Crystal Lee: CASAT Podcast Network.

Bianca McCall: Welcome to the NOCE Dose Opioid Crisis Unplugged. The NOCE Dose Opioid Crisis Unplugged is a concise and insightful podcast offering a deeper dive into the realities faced by professionals combating the opioid epidemic. Join us as we reconnect with expert panelists from our listening sessions, providing a behind the scenes look at their work and insights into the pressing issues of prevention and diversion, harm reduction, opioid use, treatment recovery and reoccurrence prevention. Welcome to the NOCE Dose brought to you by the Nevada Opioid center of Excellence at www.nvopioidcoe.org I'm your host with the NOCE, Bianca D. McCall, going behind the front lines with professionals and community members alike who support the opioid response programming in Nevada State. And we are gathered here today to debrief after the latest NOCE sponsored learning series, Culturally Responsive Approaches to Addressing Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder and in Nevada's Tribal Nations. And today we're honored to welcome Dr. Crystal Lee, a public health powerhouse and fierce advocate for indigenous communities. Born and raised on the Navajo Nation, Dr. Lee brings a, deeply rooted and intentional perspective to her research and presentation of the unique mental health and substance use care and concerns across tribal nations. she's the founder and CEO of United Natives, a nonprofit. national nonprofit provided free mental health and telehealth services to Indian country. United Natives was recognized by USA Today as a top nonprofit during the COVID 19 response. Dr. Crystal has earned both a master's and Ph.D. in public health. She has a faculty role, stretching from Johns Hopkins to UCLA and is now teaching at the University of New Mexico and is now a resident subject matter expert for, the Nevada Opioid center of Excellence, AKA nos, at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research bridges infectious disease prevention and indigenous health policy and some fun facts for, our listeners. I gotta get you with the fun facts. You can catch Dr. Crystal making waves in fashion and in sports, two of my personal favorite pastimes. She is the founder of Dr. B Collections and the first Native American to own two men's professional basketball teams in Mexico. Now, you know we have to tie in the FIBA hoop into this conversation somehow. Somehow. but from the United nations to, to the White House, Dr. Crystal has been a voice of fairness, visibility and indigenous wellness. So let's get into this powerful conversation with arguably one of the most interesting persons on Turtle island. Welcome, Doc. Dr. Crystal, how are you holding up today?

Dr. Crystal Lee: Hey, Bianca. Well, first and foremost, just an honor to be Here and to spend time with you to have this amazing discussion. I am doing really good, especially being that I am headed back to my homeland, the Navajo Nation, right when we're done. So it's going to be a great day.

Bianca McCall: I love it. I love that connection, that return to home. and so I'm not going to hold you up online when you could be going back to your home and seeing your family. Right. So, let's jump in, let's jump right into these questions. and I'm going to come hard from the start, just like you did in your learning series. Because Dr. Crystal, in the very first session of the learning series, you gave voice to stories that are often erased truths about American history. And that includes the devastating acts of violence and displacement. And for professionals throughout the continuum of care, and certainly those who are in spaces of opioid response, how does acknowledging the true history reshape how we show up in service to urban native and tribal communities on the rez today?

Dr. Crystal Lee: Great question, Bianca. Well, first, I don't like to sugarcoat anything. I know that having truth to what we've experienced, is really important. And one of the things that is amazing is us as Native people, we can talk about the truth because we've experienced it. But what we understand is it makes others feel uncomfortable because either they don't know or they don't want to know. And so when we come into spaces to have our platform and our voice is heard, it's an opportune time to truly educate people from firsthand experience. And the truth was saying the truth will set you free. Right, Right. And if we don't state the honest true history of genocide, both cultural and erasure of our people, and let's be real here, taking over land, that was not rightfully others people's land, but it was our land to begin with. And everything from the moment of 1492 until current, just all the historical and current oppression, is really important because this is why we suffer from the mental health and behavioral health issues that we do. It's not just all of a sudden. It's been a long historical experience and situation for us Indigenous people of North America and all indigenous peoples globally, not just in the United States. But I know us being here in the States, we're focused on Native Americans and Alaska Natives and include our other relatives, Native Hawaiians as well.

Bianca McCall: Yeah. And I'm so glad that you pointed out that distinction too because, I think there's definitely a tie in between racial Trauma and some of the experiences, of trauma and how we get engaged into mental health and substance use, disorder systems. Right. and when you talk about, Indigenous people across the world, those experiences are different. And I'm going to give you some context from my own experience being a person of color, when I do choose to take platform and have a voice in a matter, that represents that of a black woman, being met with, okay, go back. If you don't like it, go back where you came from, so to speak. but when you talk about indigenous people of this land, of this country, of tribal nations, when there's no going back, you know, it's, it's, it's. Where do you return? And so even you opening up saying, hey, you have this, this opportunity to, to return to the res, to connect with the land, connect with your family, you know, to me, that's, that's a return, you know, that's a return home, you know, and that connection, ah, that relation, with land and with, with your tribe, you know, and if I may speak in parables for a minute, you know, I mentioned Turtle, you know, in the introduction, because I like to draw from that symbolism, right, Of Turtle Island. And again, the connection, the relation, Turtle island, not just the land base, but a living story of endurance and that connection. And so Dr. Crystal, can you share with us, how can having that type of worldview, right, with land as a relation, not just a resource, right. But a relationship and a connection to the land, to the soil, to the seasons, to the history. How can having this type of worldview inform culturally responsive healing practices, especially when addressing opioid use disorder and suicide prevention and those mental health crises, in tribal communities.

Dr. Crystal Lee: Yeah. So there's a lot of interconnection, that we feel to Turtle Island. For those of you that do not know what Turtle island is, it's our indigenous reference, to this land that we live in, in the United States and also in Canada. And so it's a, ah, First Nation slash Native American, slash Alaska Native term. And it really speaks to our interconnectedness with the land, just to kind of get some context, also our language, is part of the connection as well. So it's a hybrid between land language and us as Indigenous communities. And so if you really, understand different indigenous languages, how the words are interpreted is very, community connected base. If you speak English, it's very self based and capitalist based. And so even our language always speaks to the fortitude of a connection, a relationship, whereas English does not. It's quite the opposite. M so to have that to have the language, and then we utilize it to coexist in relation with the land. Meaning, that the land takes care of us and we should take care of the land. It's a reciprocal relationship. And that there's not a hierarchical space that we as humans can own the air, own the land, own the water. That's not how it's meant to be. And that every living entity has a place that should be respected in this whole ecosystem. And we're a part of this ecosystem as human beings. We're not above it, we're part of it. And so this is really important when we're talking about mental health and healing. A A lot of our Native people that have been displaced do not understand the importance of relationships, of that connection. and we teach how important that is to ourselves, to our community, to our culture. and it gives them a sense of understanding now, a sense of purpose and just to kind of understand, you know, what land based healing can do. I know in Indigenous communities we're referring back to a lot of land based healing therapies, in which we are working to expose and heal from our traumas using land and also even some things such as equine therapy, where now we're also utilizing different animals to address mental health issues. And it's, and it's bringing us back to where, to who we were as a people predominantly.

Bianca McCall: Oh man. So just with you bringing that up, I wonder how the current division of land and language. And no coincidence that you mentioned capitalism, right? Because there's a separation of relationship between the U.S. Canada, Mexico with relationship to land, language, capitalism. Right. how is that, that current separation, how is that impacting Native Indigenous people?

Dr. Crystal Lee: Well before colonization there were no borders. And so we have relatives in Mexico. Current day we have relatives in Canada. And we don't see the borderline system as, you know, us versus Canada versus Mexico. From an Indigenous perspective, we all are one big community and we all support each other because we have our indigenous relatives in Mexico. And a lot of current day Mexicans do have a lot of indigenous roots, because they were indigenous before they were colonized by Spain. And so there's a lot of connection in terms of how we see borders because as indigenous people we just don't. And so it breaks my heart with this whole immigration processes because again there are relatives. And people should be given at least their due diligence, before their, before they may be crossed back over. And so to me it's, I see in relationship wise it's hurting our relatives, that we should not be disconnected. And so, to me it's an aspect of human rights issues. It's an aspect of, just humanity, basic humanity. And for me, as being indigenous, if you are not indigenous to Mexico, to the US or to Canada and you migrated over, then you are in our homeland. And as I meet other people that are not from America, I don't care if you've been living here for 100 years, you're still a baby. We've been here for thousands and thousands. My ancestors have been here for thousands and thousands of years. And so to me you're, you're just a new visitor. And hello, welcome to our homeland is how I greet everybody. And so it's a really pressing issue for me. As you could tell. I'm very passionate about it, about making sure that our people maintain a voice in this type of climate.

Bianca McCall: Yeah. and you know, language, you bring up language in. And I'm a huge proponent of language is important. Right. And so speaking of language, I'd like you to expand upon a little bit on what is considered sacred language of your native relatives. And also what do we need to stop using in terms of language non Natives? What do we need to stop using in terms of language that's offensive and reinforcing this devastation to your people?

Dr. Crystal Lee: Let's talk about naming of, tribal nations. for a long time we were, we were not given the ability to name ourselves. so Navajo is actually more of a derogatory term that was given to us. And so a lot of tribes, had these derogatory names such as Sue. A lot of people know tribes as Sioux, as Navajo, but actually those are incorrect. And us as native people, we want to return and recoin what we prefer to be called. And for us instead of being called Navajo, we would like to be called Dine, which means the people I know for my relatives, that are quote unquote called Sioux. they prefer to be called Lakota, Nakota or Dakota. And those are their preferences. and I think it's just about understanding, the context of tribes. We're in the United States and a lot of people do not even know about Native Americans because a, it's not really taught in the history books. There's a little sliver of Thanksgiving, and that's how most people know us, is we gave the pilgrims food and we had a great meal and yay, a great day to celebrate. Right? That's about it. That's a whole different story. But I'll keep in tune. Yes. and. And our language has been here, again for thousands of years. So our language is considered, in current day, if you will, an ancient language. And for us to be able to speak it after everything we have been through. Right. I mean, when I'm talking about boarding school era of being beaten for speaking our language and everything that basically the US Government tried to do to us is rip us of our culture and our language completely. And the fact that the Navajo Nation still speaks fluently is an act of resistance. it's one of the most, vital forms of resistance, that we can do on our part. And so with that, I'll just introduce myself in my dine language, which is the proper way in case any of my native relatives are listening. Arizona Ede Nasha. And so I said, hello, my name is Dr. Crystal Lee. And then I said my four, dine clans, and then I also said I'm originally from Teisto, Arizona. So this is how we normally greet each other to see as the Nep people, if there's any relationship among our clanship based system, to see our kinship, relationship if we're related or not.

Bianca McCall: Thank you so much for sharing your native language. for me, I feel like there's so much in the American language that it lacks, I'm trying to be careful of my words. It lacks, being informed, you know, of just kind of. And now I'll just say it. Of how ridiculous kind of we sound, without knowing, you know, not being informed in that ignorance, it can be very harmful. It can be very harmful. And I'm speaking to. You know, I've had the absolute pleasure of working with you, of being invited into native circles and witnessing the culture, the connectedness family. I've been completely moved by all of the work that you and your team at United Natives, are doing across all lands without borders. and something that has come up in these conversations. People that are not informed will say things, they will use incorrect terms or they'll say like, oh, you just gotta find your tribe. And then they'll use different language. And we see it across American culture, right, in sports, and I'm definitely going to get to that. Because I know that you've done a lot of work, in attacking and confronting the language, the damaging, the devastating language that's being used in sports culture. but just along these lines is where do we start as uninformed people? and I won't say, I won't make it like us versus them, but just all of us who are uninformed who don't know, and you don't know what you don't know, you've got some good people that just don't know. but where do we start in terms of, I guess just exploring, our own ignorance when it comes to use of language. And I just think, I know this may be a little bit of an uncomfortable conversation for some that are listening, but it's an important one that we have, right? Because if we're, if we're brought here in your learning series, the objective was to, the objective was to help the participants of that learning series create these actionable, implementation plans, you know, to be able to serve and to help in the healing processes of our Native relatives. Right. If that's what we are set out to do, then we have to confront our own ignorance. Right. And so where do we start with that, Doc?

Dr. Crystal Lee: Okay, I just want to make a quick statement. growth should be uncomfortable. And, you know, anytime that we go through, our stages as individuals of different growth patterns or growth phases, it's usually uncomfortable. And so therefore, when we're learning or we're confronting such sensitive topics and we're hearing, from the community that experiences it firsthand and it makes you feel uncomfortable. Well, that's the whole point because we want you to be informed. And how do we start? well, for starters, there's 574 federally recognized Native American and Alaska Native tribes, were dispersed throughout the United States. and I can't speak for every tribe because there's so many, but what I can say is, in your region or in your territory, just do some basic Google searches of who were the original, Indigenous communities and those homelands, and who are the current Indigenous communities in those homelands. And I would make reference to support, the local, communities. I know a lot of our communities have different events. And so if you really want to attend an event, a lot usually happen in November during Native American Heritage Month. I guarantee that there will be event near you that you can go attend, support, and ask those much needed questions as what does your nation prefer to be called? What nation are you from? and go experience our beautiful culture as indigenous people, are very accepting, community. And so it's just that people a don't know even that we're still around. How many times I've been mistaken for another racial or ethnic, group. And when I tell them I'm Native American, they're like, oh, I've never met a Native American before in my life. And I'm like, I guarantee you have. But you probably thought we were some. You probably misclassified our racial, ethnic, background. And so, and that's. I would say that's a great starting point, just to get to learn your surrounding, Native communities.

Bianca McCall: Yeah, no, great, great insights and feedback. especially knowing kind of the calendar and that there are events going on and that, yes, we've likely met, engaged, and likely culturally appropriated, our Native relatives right around us. Right. And something that I learned when you and I first met that I didn't know, but you said there are, And I don't want to mess up the percentage, but it was a pretty high percentage, I wanted to say like 80% or something like that, of dine that are urban natives living in, you know, in the Las Vegas area, living off of the reservation. Right. And so, you know, the misclassification can certainly create barriers and widen the disparities when it comes to receiving mental health services, when it comes to receiving substance use disorder services, when it comes to receiving opioid use disorder services, that misclassification. And so, where do we go? How do we know, how to implement these services or how to conduct outreach to be able to adequately support even those that are living off of the reservation.

Dr. Crystal Lee: I'm going to go a little bit off, talk about, off topic about something, that we're talking about misclassification and we just discuss, issues about immigration, actually, talk about disparities. In addition, a lot of our Native relatives who have been misclassified as Mexican have been detained by ICE and they have to prove their Native American status. and we don't know how many relatives are still caught in that bubble of, detainment. Ah. So it. All these issues, although they seem so separate. You guys are Native American, you're U.S. citizens. But this misclassification also affects our Native people. I know some of my family members, that live in Phoenix area, got, misclassified as Mexican and got in group, with the ICE situation. And so this hits home for me. And we're talking about disparities, about always, you know, Looking over your shoulder because, you know, of being misclassified. I'm carrying my tribal ID around in case, someone might mistaken me for being Mexican. I have to go get. And I'm in the process of getting deported. So I have to be very vigilant about myself. And our family has to be. And carrying archival documents, what should. What should never happen. Now, this is really ridiculous. And now this is just part of this disparate system, that we incur. And now talk about the mental anxiety, the emotional anxiety of just living and existing, with fear of how all these things can impact you. In addition, to everything that we experience, both on the reservation and off the reservation, currently, across all, tribal nations, about, 70% of Native people now live in urban areas, because of job and educational opportunities. but as myself, as living in an urban area, we still have our home base. Right? Navajo Nation's my motherland. my. My ancestors have been there, before 1492. So that. That is really our home base. So I often go home just like many other urban natives. Ah, do they. That's still the. The root of us. So we often go home, as best as we can. But within our. Our, populations, I think a unique, aspect of it from a cultural framework and a spiritual framework is, for me and my. Myself. I can't speak for, you know, every other Dene person or every native person, but I still practice my culture and my spirituality. and when I tell people that the only place I can actually go practice it is back on the Navajo Nation, that's the only place in the world. I can't go to a church or a mosque or a temple. and my faith is just readily accessible in any city or any country that I visit. it's only, on the Navajo Nation. And so, And that's the part of our connectedness because, Our spiritual aspect is in close relationship to the land. as we say, the land is our church. and so that's part of our connection from a spiritual aspect. Because a lot of people ask us, well, if it's so bad on the reservation, you can face all these disparities.

Bianca McCall: Why.

Dr. Crystal Lee: Why don't you just leave and go pick up and go somewhere else? It's. It's. We can't because all of our spiritual. Our cultural roots are there. And, It's just. So it's not as easy as people, perceive it to be.

Bianca McCall: Yeah. Yeah. And it's so interesting to me, and I'm just making a comment, that may or may not make it into this, this podcast conversation, but, but it's interesting to me that for some that is just a simple concept or something they default back to is just, oh, just pick up and leave or just pick up and take over somebody else's space or instead of returning, coming back and healing and the land healing that you're speaking about, there's this transient nature that some people have when it comes to problem solving, and healing or restoring. And that's a whole nother podcast, when we talk about that. but thank you so much for sharing that. I know that your body of work expands epidemiology, indigenous health policy and community led mental health initiatives. yet what stands out to me most is the intention behind that. and you talk about that intention of always having that home base, that motherland to return to. but for those that are listening, that don't know the heart behind your research, Dr. Krystal, can you share what's guided your path, what questions you've been trying to answer through your work and in how your identity and lived experiences have shaped the impact that you're striving to make across Native nations and beyond?

Dr. Crystal Lee: Yes, it's, it's a form of self love, because I love, love who I am because of where I come from, because I am Dine, because I come from such a great family, both my mother's and my father's side and that long historical ancestral lineage that I come from. I see the bigger picture. I know what my people have went through for me to exist today. I, don't look at just myself as an individual. I look 10, 20 generations back before me on how much they had to endure for me to be here to this day. And I don't take that for granted. I do not take my, my ability to live as a dine woman in 2025 for granted. I take my identity and where I come from very seriously. And that knowing that what they been through and then knowing what work still needs to be done with our communities and for our communities, there's, there's still a lot of work to be done. But you know, there's a lot of great folks besides me who are doing the work. But that's the purpose, of the, of what I do and, and why I do it. And you know, if you grow up on the reservation and you see, you know, your dad suffering from you Know mental health and your grandpa suffering from heart disease and diabetes and such and so forth. And you see this just a continuum. you see poverty and you see, chronic and mental health diseases just plague your community. You know, why, why would we not want to take that to heart and help our community? And so I literally try to do everything that I can, that I, That I feel that the community needs, because it's not me making decisions like as you indicated, it's community led. And that, our community helps to guide us on our next steps. On even my research, it's community led. They inform me on what research is needed. And so that's something I take a lot with pride. And I think it's that form of just that self love and understanding, not from a, superficial, framework of self love. I'm talking about understanding your DNA, things that really are, that make you who you are, that came from generations before you and that, that you acquire just that whole makeup of that lineage, from both your mother and your father's side. And I am part of that whole makeup of that whole DNA. And that's what I mean, that I, love myself and I love who I am and where I come from.

Bianca McCall: I just, People that are listening can't see me, and can't see you right now, Dr. Crystal. But I just took a moment of silence, and that's something that I actually learned from native relatives, is the power of silence. you know, somebody like me, professional conversationalist, you don't catch me silent too much, you know, not when I'm, not when I'm out in public. But something that I learned in, in being able to congregate, fellowship, have conversations with native relatives is that, you know, silence is, is powerful. Silences is, you know, those are taking the moments to connect right with, with, with land and with language, and with love. And, And I, I feel that your statement of this is an act of self love that demanded a moment of silence. You know, that that's it right there. That's a, that's a mic drop. you know, for, for those of you don't know what I'm getting at, that that was a mic drop for real. An act of self love to know yourself, to know your DNA, to know. And this is something else too, that I've also observed, in spaces where I've been invited and welcomed, is the knowing of self. It's generations before you, but there's also this care and concern and Intentionality about the generations after you, you know, and that's something that is unique to, to Native people. this care and concern and intentionality about generations before and after. How I've also seen you and I alluded to wanting, itching, grabbing to talk about sports just from my background and I know our shared background in basketball and in sports and professional sports and things along those lines of intentionality, care and concern. And looking at the move forward, can you share with our listeners some of the work that you've been doing for Native people and what that intentionality looks like in the spaces of sports?

Dr. Crystal Lee: Yes, absolutely. I know Bianca, you and I were both previous Hoopers and both collegiate and you went on and did professional which is amazing. So that, that's how we vibe initially was through basketball. growing up on the reservation we didn't have swimming pools or golf courses or tennis courts. It was usually livestock like horses and basketball, that were pretty easy to experience growing up. So there's a term called res ball short for reservation ball. And basketball is so huge on any tribal nation in the US and so there's this deep love that I've always had for basketball because basketball helped bring me to college. And it might be this whole cliche of you know, coming from a ah under resourced community and then you use basketball. You know it's. It's a tall tale story for a lot of our communities but it's, it's really true that you know basketball was my pipeline, and I hold that dear to my heart. And so as I did all in my career and education, basketball came back into my life again. and it was becoming a professional men's professional basketball team owner in Mexico. And so I started to get back into sports heavily. And what better way to address some of our mental health issues, especially with our youth than to use sports as a catalyst to help promote mental health and wellness, help prevent suicidal ideation. and so I really am using sports to bring back just community resources for our youth, our youth, Native youth have the highest suicide rate out of any racial ethnic group in the US and these type of resources are truly needed to bring hope to bring back care in the community. Because oftentimes our Native youth are often left out on opportunities and resources. And so when we bring it to the reservation are to them, and they see you know, not only the athletes but also the professionals that we bring the youth eyes just light up, and it's so amazing to see their experience of how much fun they're having and what light and joy that we brought them, at least for that time that we're there. And so we want to celebrate our youth. And you're talking about the next phases of generations, us. Because I'm like my auntie stage right, so now, like, these are all my little nieces and nephews running around. But, you know, as. As an auntie, to kind of, prepare the youth. But again, we have to keep our language and, and our culture and to just keep, that knowledge and pass it down. there's a saying that, seventh generation, in Indian country, which means that we just don't live as a Native person in today. we live for generations down the road acknowledging that we are the wisdom, the pipeline to the wisdom that we have to teach our youth our language, we have to teach our youth our cultural, and our ceremonies, and we have to sustain it. And so it brings this huge responsibility for us Native people to continue that.

Bianca McCall: Yeah, what a great sense of purpose as well. You know, you talk about love, you talk about purpose, you talk about, knowing the self, discovery, right? And the research. you know, these are all the ingredients to, to resilience and to having, a greater impact on generations and seven generations forward. this is incredible. Dr. Crystal, thank you so much for sharing, so much of, yourself and your culture. and I'm going to be real. I don't know how you do it, I don't know how you, how you heal from. From so much. And I think that that's kind of like the, you know, inquiring minds want to know is how can we come together as a community and specifically in the opioid response community, how do we come together and support the healing of Native people, of Native relatives? Because, all that that you, yourself and your people, are continuously having to overcome, it's so incredible. And from my vantage point, it requires an incredible response from our community. So I appreciate you so much for sharing with us some of the tools, the ingredients, the context, that we need to adjust and start taking so we can be a part of, of the healing. Right? Be a part of the process and, and connect. Connect with the land, connect with the people. Dr. Crystal, do you have any final thoughts that you. You'd like to share with our listeners before we. We thank you, thank you, thank you. And wrap this One up.

Dr. Crystal Lee: Oh, geez. I did not think about that part.

Dr. Crystal Lee: I'm not exactly sure what to say. but, what I do know is that as indigenous people, we respect all life. That's including all humans. And that if we have that much respect for every living entity, in addition to every human, what a much better world that we would live in. And that unity and community are very key, and that we have to be here to help each other. That's what relationships mean. It's very relational. And I'm, really tired of just the disrespect and the dishonor that we carry among each other. And if we could just be respectful towards each other, I think that could take us a long way. Instead of this divisive, mentality. And. And. And so I just, you know, if I had a wand, I wish. I wish that we could just be in this harmonious, respectful existence and, that we support each other. And I definitely need support. I know you need support. Our organizations need support. Our communities need support. and so with that being said, let's look at it from a different framework. It's about being relational, versus individualistic. I think is something that I really wanted to hone in on.

Bianca McCall: Yeah. M. And you didn't say it, but I'm going to say it. when, Doc says we need support, money. Send money to United Natives, I'm going to say it. Doc, you don't have to say it. United Natives, your nonprofit. And I want to give you an opportunity to share, your contact information. So for our listeners that want to contribute, continue this conversation, that want to be a part of the healing, that want to be a part of the support that you do need, I. I want to give you an opportunity to be able to share that. but I. But I also want to say United Natives, your. Your national nonprofit, has provided free mental health telehealth therapy sessions to Indian country, right. Spanning across all of. Of the U.S. right? In several territories. Free therapy. Free telehealth therapy. Right. And just the, value in that is just so incredible. I have been honored to be a part of this initiative, and I've had conversations with people who need this service, and, amongst some recent funding issues. Right? And we all. We're no strangers to what's going on on the national level. that program is in jeopardy. It's beyond the point of being in jeopardy. And so Dr. Krystal's gonna be humble, is gonna be honorable and say we need support. I, on the other hand, and every representation I make has no reflection on the University of Nevada, Reno and the Nostos or the, Nevada Obedo center of Excellence. But, but I, on the other hand, I'm going to say send resources, send money, send, whatever supports can keep programs like this going. And with that, Dr. Crystal, if you could share what your contact information is for people that want to, to help, that want to, have a presence and be supportive.

Dr. Crystal Lee: Thank you so much for that, Bianca. Really appreciate that. yes, we definitely need financial resources or other resources. you can visit our website@unitednatives.org or you may email us at events unitednatives.org and we're, we definitely need all the support we can get, from anyone that is, wants to help our communities. we'd be really grateful for any support that we can get. Thank you, Bianca.

Bianca McCall: Yeah, no, of course. And thank you, something that will resonate with me through the rest of today, the rest of the week, the rest of the month, the rest of my life. Dr. Crystal, is unity and community are keys. Right? They're keys. Dr. Crystal, thank you so much for joining us and sharing not only your incredible expertise, but also your heart. your commitment to truth telling, to healing and visibility for indigenous communities is powerful, to say the least. And we're grateful for the chance to learn from you today. And thank you to all who are tuning into this episode of the Nostos. If this conversation moved you like it moved me, if it challenges you to be more intentional about the review of his, his stories and her stories, if this conversation taught you something new, don't keep it to yourself. Subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who needs to hear this. Until next time, stay grounded, stay curious, and be well.

Dr. Crystal Lee: Thank you, everyone.

Bianca McCall: Thank you for listening to the NOCE Dose the Opioid Epidemic, Unplugged. We hope that you found this episode compelling and informative, and we ask that you please share this episode with your friends and your colleagues. And if you want to learn more, please visit our website at www.nvopioidcoe.org the NOCE Dose podcast is brought to you by the Nevada Opioid Center of Excellence or NOCE NOCE is dedicated to developing and sharing evidence, informed training and offering technical assistance to professionals and community members alike. Now, whether you are a care provider or a concerned community member, NOCE provides resources to support those affected by opioid use. Funding for this activity was made made possible in whole or in part by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, DHHS Director's Office, through the Fund for Resilient Nevada. CASAT Podcast Network. This podcast has been brought to you by the CASAT Podcast Network, located within the center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies, a part of the School of Public Health at the University of Nevada, Reno. For more podcast information and resources, visit casat.org.