About Bernie Ellis

Consulting Services Provided from 2002-2004

Fremont County Alcohol Crisis Center (Riverton, Wyoming): I conducted all research studies for this treatment program (which I established in 2000) in order to assist it in meeting its contractual obligations with the (federal) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the State of Wyoming. I also helped obtain additional resources to keep this treatment program open. Through my efforts, we raised $830,000 to keep this program open for another year.

Abate Substance Abuse Project (Fremont County, Wyoming): I conducted research on the impact of this community coalition (which I helped organize in 1997) for reducing substance abuse in Fremont County, the home of the Wind River Indian Reservation. This research helped obtain continuation funding for this organization from the U.S. Department of Justice through the “Drug-Free Communities” funding program.

Wind River Indian Reservation and Fremont County, WY Adult and Juvenile Drug Courts: I performed impact studies to assist these drug courts (all of which I helped establish) to compete for state and federal support to continue these programs. These reports indicated that the initiatives which I stimulated and helped implement on and off the Wind River Indian Reservation since 1997 have resulted in a 60-75% decline in substance abuse-related arrests in these communities, and have become a model for similar activity throughout Wyoming.

Northern Arapaho Diabetes Awareness Program, Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming: I re-designed all data collection instruments for this health program, and developed computerized record systems to store data from these instruments. I also trained NADAP staff to administer these instruments and to enter them into the computerized record systems.

Fighting Back, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey: I prepared and presented a paper on the evaluation of one of the fourteen Fighting Back sites funded by the Foundation (Northwest New Mexico Fighting Back), and on which evaluation methods are most appropriate for evaluating community-based substance abuse reduction efforts. Fighting Back is the largest substance abuse reduction program ever funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, providing in excess of $100 million over seven years to support innovative community-based strategies for reducing substance abuse.

Demand Treatment, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, New Jersey: I prepared and presented a two hour seminar on effective evaluation strategies at the annual meeting of the Demand Treatment program, another large substance abuse reduction effort funded by the Foundation in 29 communities throughout the country.

Gallatin Responsive Interventions Program (GRIP), Bozeman, Montana: I assisted this Demand Treatment site to develop a public education and information program to encourage physicians, ministers and educators to recognize early signs of alcohol and/or drug dependence and to refer these persons to substance abuse treatment services.

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs: My paper, “Mobilizing Communities To Reduce Substance Abuse in Indian Country”, was published in the January, 2003 issue of this medical journal. The paper has now been reprinted in a book on substance abuse interventions in Indian Country.

Gallup, NM and the Navajo Nation: I conducted the fifth in a series of analyses of trends in substance abuse-related problems in this northwestern New Mexico city, which was once the worst community in the country for alcohol-related deaths. As a result of my research, the Gallup, NM city government, in cooperation with the Navajo Nation, has launched a number of new initiatives to return this community to the pace of improvement in overcoming its alcohol-related problems which it had achieved in the early 1990s.

Medical Marijuana Legislation: I provided written testimony on several issues associated with establishing state medical marijuana programs for legislatures and/or governors in Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, New York and Rhode Island.