Day 3 | Wednesday

Wednesday was another meaningful and action packed day for the White Earth Team. The day began early, with steaming cups of coffee from the beverage station at the casino and Tupperware-made oatmeal. Our first stop of the day was meeting Karen and Rachel, who kindly escorted us to our two morning sites. 

Half of the group — Mack, Kyla, and myself — spent the first part of the morning at the Maternal Outreach and Mitigation Services (MOMs). The MOMs Program is an intensive out-patient service for pregnant and/or new mothers who are dealing with medical and emotional problems caused by addiction to opioids and heroin. Individuals within the program receive daily doses of Suboxone as a means to transition away from other drug use. Suboxone, the brand name for buprenorphine/naloxone, works as an agonist that acts at the receptor. The nurses at MOMs explained that at low doses buprenorphine limits an individual’s withdrawal symptoms but does not give the “high” experienced from other opiates. The goal of the program, they explained, is to provide a positive and safe environment where mothers can begin using and potentially taper off of Suboxone. While this treatment is a primary focus of the program, MOMs also provides an integrative system of treatment. At the facility there are tri-weekly group meetings and cultural events. They also provide daycare in order to make the treatment and meetings more accessible for the mothers. Throughout the morning, we were able to shadow the nurses during dosing and also hear individual’s stories/experiences with the program. 

After leaving MOMs, and switching roles with Sarah B. and Anirudh, we drove over to Harm Reduction. The Harm Reduction program provides syringe exchange services, patient education, and linkage to care for individuals both enrolled and not enrolled with the reservation. Due to time constraints, our group had limited time with the nurses at Harm Exchange and no clients visited. That said, we had ample time to talk with Rachel about her experiences beginning the program and her efforts in changing nursing policies regarding Narcan. 

At this point in the day we got word of new weather reports that were quickly approaching the White Earth Reservation. In an attempt to “beat the storm,” we decided to head back to the hotel and pack up our belongings before heading to IHS for the afternoon. Upon arriving to IHS, we quickly split up to our assigned shadowing positions for the day. Kyla and Sarah B. were placed in Pediatrics. Mack shadowed a family practice physician. Anirudh and I were placed in OT/PT. While our initial plan was to leave IHS and head to the Boys and Girls Club in the evening, the weather unfortunately halted those plans. Therefore, following our time at IHS we all packed into the car and began our rain-filled drive to Duluth. Wednesday finished with a stop for dinner at Canal Park Brewing Company and a final drive to Grampies house where we spent the night.