November is Native American Heritage Month and at Stop Stigma Sacramento we wanted to celebrate this month by highlighting a local Native leader who works to address the mental health needs of this traditionally underserved community. We sat down with Albert Titman, who has decades of experience in the space, to discuss the unique barriers facing this community and how he is working to bring relief. He is currently the Deputy Director for the Native Dads Network and formerly was the Associate Director of Cultural Integration and Development at Sprenger Behavioral Medicine for the TeleWell Indian Health MAT project and spent 15 years as the lead SUD counselor and 5 years as Behavioral Health Dept Manager at the Sacramento Native American Health Center (SNACH).
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Stop Stigma Sacramento: Please describe your Native American heritage. Which tribe(s) are you or your family affiliated with, and how has your cultural background influenced your identity? How have your tribal affiliations and cultural traditions shaped your identity?
Albert Titman: My tribal heritage is Mewoauk Usanon Meidu on my fathers side and Meidsee Band of the Pure River Nation on my Grandmother’s side and my mother is from Mexico a descendant of Chocomeka people. My ancestors experienced a lot of historical trauma from forced migrations onto reservations or rancherias, abuse at Indian boarding schools and more. I was born and raised in Sacramento which is the original homeland of my people along the river systems. Growing up, I was raised more on my Mother’s side, through the Latino Heritage, but what I know now after doing some research about identity is you know it’s important, that at some point in every person’s life they know who they are what their truth is, and I know more about my Mewoak heritage. The way that the people who helped me find a path to healing and wellness through both western approaches and laying the foundation of culture identity and importance of reclaiming that part of identity and owning it and claiming it and being proud of it. Not hiding it, not being ashamed like I was when I was a kid.
SSS: Growing up, how were mental health, wellness, or substance use challenges discussed in your family or community?
AT: Out in the community there was a lot of ugliness happening in the community that when you’re young you think it’s all glorious and glamorous, you know partying gang influence substance use. It started to affect my life, I realized at a very young age, “This is affecting my life man I want to change.” but by that time I didn’t know how and there was shame that I realize now that was linked to continuing to numb out and escape. There did come a time in my life in my 20’s when I realized that I needed to change, but there was also resistance. I started to experience depression and anxiety and at that time I didn’t know what it was. All I knew then was I didn’t like how this made me feel and without understanding and truly realizing that maybe I had some underlying issues I would drink and smoke and then drink and smoke more to escape and numb out that pain to continue to live out that world. There also wasn’t much trust in traditional western mental health treatment – there was a feeling that those institutions didn’t care about our community.
SSS: How did traditional cultural practices play a role in your healing?
AT: My whole life I knew I was native I just didn’t know what that meant. Ultimately coming back to the culture, when I started going to ceremonies, I met some relatives that introduced me to cultural healing, sweat lodge ceremony, which had been adopted by our relatives here, to find healing to purify our physical and spiritual selves and those things really started to shape my life today.
SSS: How did Native Dads Network start and how do you incorporate cultural traditions and values to support mental health and addiction recovery?
AT: My friend and visionary, Michael Duncan came to me and said I have this vision to start a non-profit that helps and serves Native men, there aren’t any resources here and there weren’t and there still aren’t very many resources for men and their children. We were experiencing a lot of single fathers coming in looking for housing or treatment and there was nothing – so in 2014 Native Dads became a nonprofit in Sacramento. Over the years Native Dads Network has really expanded and grew, laid on the foundation of culture, spirituality, ceremonial practice, custom and tradition and that is the foundation of all of our work. We deliver our work to tribal communities across all of California, into Oregon, Washington, Nevada and recently Arizona and it’s been fruitful ever since.
SSS: Do you see any unique cultural factors that impact mental health in Native American communities (such as historical trauma, connection to land, or cultural loss)?
AT: My whole life I knew I was native I just didn’t knew what that meant. I had no clue until my mental health was affected by what we know now as historical trauma or the intergenerational acts and as I started to research culture and have my first children and make some changes in my life sought therapy and help this isn’t just about quitting using this is about the wholistic approach and learning about what it means to be a Mewouak man.
SSS: How did you first become involved with the Stop Stigma Sacramento/”Mental Illness It’s Not Always What You Think” project? Why did you decide to participate in the project’s original creative messaging (billboards, tip cards, gas toppers ect.)?
AT: My relationship with mental health started on a personal journey first so I accessed some of the resources from the county early on so if I’m being truthful I was a consumer. Then in my healing I had the opportunity to go back to school and then after I was invited back to intern at the county level. After that while working at SNACK we made relationships with the county.
SSS: What impact have you seen in your community as a result of participating with Stop Stigma Sacramento?
AT: Personally, we didn’t expect to see our images on billboards, we thought it was just going to be for tribal communities, I was kinda thrown off by it. But later on it became fruitful. I would be at gatherings and it would be a conversation starter, where normally we wouldn’t talk about these things but it gave us the opportunity to see it around ceremony and around our campsites it gave me the opportunity to talk about mental health mental wellness cultural healing whereas we didn’t talk about those things before so yeah I believe it was beneficial even still to this day.
SSS: In what ways do you feel stigma toward mental illness manifests specifically within Native American communities? As someone with a personal and professional connection to Native American communities, what advice or insights would you give to Native individuals struggling with addiction or mental health challenges but hesitant to seek help due to cultural or social barriers?
AT: Growing up all of the stigma around seeking help and seeking western care was somewhat validated by their experiences of trauma and abuse. So what was passed down was these stigmas that they don’t want to help they just want to put you on medication they just want to numb you out of the truth because that is what they experienced. Fast forward to now, when I worked at the clinic 100% of our department was indigenous clinicians and counselors and case managers and even the CEO so we started to break down some of those stigmas and barriers for our relatives to not just access but give the sense of safety, saying you can come here and trust us we are you, you are us you come and you see a native counselor and so breaking down those stigma those traumas that have been transmitted. You couldn’t go to Kaiser or the program down the street and receive smudge or a song – a connection to the land and our ancestors but you could come to the clinic and receive that. Interwoven in that is the western medicine but the core is the sense of safety in the culture. Whether it’s the Native American Health Center in Sacramento or the Native Dads Network, that provides that foundation of cultural healing, absolutely we encourage it. We collaborative with one another and now our program is statewide its growing like a managed fire!