Update for January 16, 2010
Suicide Prevention Conference. This week Melody Price-Yonts and Wilbur Brown (SEARHC's new Behavioral Health Prevention Manager) attended the statewide Suicide Prevention Summit in Anchorage at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The conference theme was "Your Life Has Value to Me." The conference was co-hosted by the Suicide Prevention Council and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. The goal of the conference was to discuss and analyze the current status of suicide prevention in the state. The group worked to identify needs, resources, gaps, challenges and strengths in the suicide prevention network while looking at ways to enhance services.
City of Hoonah Offers Land for Clinic. This week, staff from our facilities, planning, and health operations met with members of the City of Hoonah, the Hoonah Indian Association and interested community members. Our hope was to provide an update on our first 90 days of operation and to discuss possible clinic sites in the community. During our visit, the city committed land near the airport for a future clinic site. Part of our management plan included a compressed schedule to develop, fund and construct a new clinic in Hoonah. Within the first few months, we have been able to obtain design funds and site control for a future clinic. This is excellent progress and demonstrates significant commitment by the tribe, city, and SEARHC to meet this objective. We look forward to updating the board.
CCTHITA Hosts Youth Suicide Prevention Work Group. On Friday, the Central Council of Tlingít and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (CCTHITA) and CCTHITA President Bill Martin hosted a suicide prevention meeting at the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall in Juneau. This meeting is a continuation of a work group established this fall that includes CCTHITA, community members, local agencies providing behavioral health services, State of Alaska/OCS, Juneau School District, legislators, congressional office staff and SEARHC. The work group heard insights and perspectives from Elders across our region. Youth, primarily from Yaakoosgé Daakahídi High School, provided some of their perspectives. The group also received a brief update on data collection and set the next meeting date.
Weather Delays During Patient Travel. When patients travel and get delayed or rerouted due to weather, SEARHC now will pay for housing and provide up to $18 a day for food. According to SEARHC Community Resource Program Services, this will bring SEARHC in line with what some other Alaska tribal health organizations are doing for their patients.
Specialty Podiatry Clinics. SEARHC Community Resource Program Services now offers specialty podiatry clinics with Dr. Kelly Moxley of the Juneau Foot and Ankle Center. Dr. Moxley will visit Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital twice and the Ethel Lund Medical Center once each fiscal year, with clinic dates to be announced (the first Sitka clinic was in September). An early priority for these clinics will be SEARHC diabetes patients from around the consortium, and patients from the villages can receive travel help to get to the Sitka clinics. The clinics will be announced with the other specialty clinics on our site, http://www.searhc.org/common/pages/specialtyclinics/index.php.
SEARHC Receives H1N1 Funding. SEARHC is receiving $26,915 from the state to fund its H1N1 immunization program. This money is being used to pay for nursing staff during H1N1 vaccine clinics, a person to enter data in the state's VacTrak system and our RPMS system, hand sanitizer wall dispensers and refills, hand hygiene and cough etiquette posters and frames, a vaccine refrigerator, smaller battery-operated refrigerators, temperature monitoring systems and advertising for H1N1 flu shot clinics.
SEARHC Opens Community Family Services Program Office in Craig. The SEARHC Community Family Services program held a formal grand opening on Thursday, Jan. 14, for its new office in Craig. The office will offer behavioral health services and is located on the first floor of the Thibodeau Mall in Craig. It is staffed by Community Family Service Worker (CFSW) Elena Martin and Administrative Assistant Wanda Isaacs, who can be reached at 826-2101 and 826-2102.
SEARHC Hydaburg Health Center Renovation and Expansion Project Update. SEARHC has leased the Boys and Girls Club of Hydaburg to serve as a temporary clinic while the Hydaburg Health Center renovation and expansion project is completed next door. The design for the new clinic has been approved and it went out for bid on Monday, Jan. 11. Clinic operations will move next door to the Boys and Girls Club building in mid-February, and construction is expected to start on the renovation and expansion project this spring, so long as bids are within funding limits. Construction should last about a full year starting from the actual contract award date to full operation of the new facility.
SEARHC to Host Community Cancer Forum on Feb. 5: SEARHC will host a community cancer forum on Friday, Feb. 5. Guests will include Dr. Greg Marino, the oncologist from the Alaska Native Medical Center. A variety of panelists will make presentations and be available for questions and answers. Watch for more details from your local clinic and local media.
SEARHC Honors National Influenza Vaccination Week: National Influenza Vaccination Week is Jan. 10-16, and SEARHC encourages those patients who haven’t already been vaccinated for the H1N1 (swine) flu to call their local SEARHC clinic and schedule a flu shot appointment. Approximately 47 million Americans already have become sick with H1N1, with more than 200,000 hospitalizations and nearly 10,000 deaths. A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study shows American Indians and Alaska Natives have much higher rates of hospitalizations or deaths from the H1N1 flu than the general population, and getting vaccinated is the best defense against the flu. More information about the flu, how to prevent it, what to do if you’re sick and flu vaccine priority groups can be found at http://www.searhc.org/flu/.
SEARHC Hires Wilbur Brown to Manage Behavioral Health Prevention Program. We are happy to welcome Wilbur Brown back to SEARHC. Wilbur comes back to us after a couple of years in Anchorage, where he worked for the state’s tobacco prevention program. Before his move to Anchorage, Wilbur was SEARHC’s tobacco policy coordinator in Juneau and before that in Sitka. He also spent many years working with our Gunaanastí Bill Brady Healing Center. In his new job, Wilbur will manage a program that works with village youth to prevent them from using tobacco, drugs and alcohol. He also will oversee two new suicide prevention grants, one from the state and one from IHS.
Reach Out and Read Program Comes to Juneau. This new program is being implemented at five tribal sites in Alaska, including the Ethel Lund Medical Center. The Reach Out and Read program was the No. 1 recommendation of the Commission of Native American Child Health when it visited ELMC in October. In the program, children from birth to 5 years old receive one of 11 age-appropriate books when they come to ELMC for a well-child visit, and the provider uses the book as a tool to assess the child's development. The program reinforces the importance of literacy and learning, which are key to the future health and economic status of adults. Dr. Cate Buley will lead the program, with assistance from Dr. Marna Schwartz, Frances Dowd and Yavonne Lott.
Flu Prevention Reminder. Southeast Alaska residents can help prevent the spread of flu by washing their hands frequently with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer (especially after coughing or sneezing). Other ways to prevent the spread of flu include coughing into sleeves or a tissue instead of coughing into hands, staying home from work or school when sick with flu-like symptoms (don't go back to work or school until at least one full day has passed without a fever, with no fever-reducing medication) and using sanitary wipes to wipe down high-traffic surfaces such as computer keyboards, stair railings, doorknobs, telephones and light switches.
Updated information on the flu can be found online at http://www.pandemicflu.alaska.gov (state site), or at http://www.flu.gov/ or http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ (national sites). SEARHC also has information posted about H1N1 flu at http://www.searhc.org/h1n1/.
Just a reminder. . . SEARHC frequently brings in traveling medical specialists to hold specialty clinics at its various facilities, saving you the expense and inconvenience of flying to Anchorage or Seattle for services not available in Southeast. Some SEARHC medical providers who work at larger facilities make regular trips to our village clinics to provide specialty services that aren't normally available in those communities. All specialty clinics, except for medical field trips and specified dental clinics, must be referred through a SEARHC provider. Links to our upcoming specialty clinic schedules are at http://www.searhc.org/common/pages/specialtyclinics/index.php.
Regards,
Roald.
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