The American Indian Alaska Native Mental Health Research journal recently published an article entitled “Native Generations: A Campaign Addressing Infant Mortality among American Indians and Alaska Natives in Urban Areas.”

The Native Generations campaign was a pilot project aimed to address disparities in rates of infant mortality in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities and the general population. Former Urban Indian Health Institute staff, Shira Rutman MPH and Julie Loughran MPH, co-authored the work with Leah Tanner (Seattle Children’s Hospital), and Leslie L. Randall, RN, MPH, BSN (NiMiiPuu Health Board, Nez Perce Tribe). The campaign produced an 11-minute video which featured families, providers, and community members from diverse tribal and geographic backgrounds.

The preliminary findings conclude that 100% of AI/AN viewers liked the video and that the vast majority (80.4%) thought the video increased awareness of infant mortality rates and risk for infant mortality.

Going forward, the authors suggest that future studies should look at indicators that measure changes such as the utilization of Native-specific resources, baseline infant mortality knowledge, and evaluation of retention of information in order to collect the necessary information to support a full-scale of the Native Generations campaign.

For more information about the Native Generations project or resources developed for families, visit the Native Generations page on the UIHI website.

The full text article is available from the American Indian Alaska Native Mental Health Research journal.

Acknowledgements: This work was funded by a contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health Resource Center and the manuscript development was supported by the OMH American Indian and Alaska Native Disparities program AIAMP120015. Native Generations had many important collaborators. Please see the UIHI website for more information on those who contributed to the Native Generations campaign.

SID (Southwest Indigenous Data Portal) is a secure, online HITECH/HIPPA-certified data portal developed and operated by AASTEC staff.

This innovative system is customizable for tribal health programs (i.e. SDPI, CHR, Behavioral Health, etc.) to perform a variety of functions, including:

• Monitoring participant health status/outcomes
• Tracking programmatic activities
• Evaluating program services
• Progress reporting

SID also eliminates local challenges with computer networking, data storage, confidentiality, and data security. AASTEC staff also presented on the development of SID at this year’s Native Research Network Conference in Cherokee, NC.

Click here or on image to view or download full size PDF (4MB).

October is National SIDS Awareness Month!

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities continue to experience exponentially higher rates of SIDS; with some AI/AN communities having a rate 115% higher than non-Hispanic white communities.*

The Urban Indian Health Institute, a Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board, is a partner within the National Action Partnership to Promote Safe Sleep (NAPPSS) and we have been working to share existing information on the six common controllable risk factors that put AI/AN infants at greater risk of SIDS, as listed by the Healthy Native Babies Project in 2006. In addition, we are promoting NAPPSS’ Action Plan with health care providers to encourage active conversations and strategies about SIDS risk-reduction and safe sleep behavior with infant caregivers. This is the third and final article of a 3-Part series focusing on the controllable risk factors of SIDS and safe infant sleep behaviors in Indian Country.

View the UIHI’s new broadcast online to learn about the NAPPSS strategies you can use for engaging and communicating with infant caregivers.
Visit the Center for Disease Control’s SIDS Awareness Month webpage to learn more about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

*Reference: Urban Indian Health Institute, Seattle Indian Health Board. (2011). Looking to the Past to Improve the Future: Designing a Campaign to Address Infant Mortality among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Seattle, WA.

Using tribal sovereignty is key to ending commercial tobacco use in our communities. We have the opportunity to develop tobacco prevention initiatives that communities around the world can adapt. Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians raised the bar high and set the example by using their authority to enact smoke-free housing policies that will eliminate secondhand smoke exposure for vulnerable tenants and visitors in tribal housing, like children and pregnant women.
 

Jim Belanger at the Red Cliff Community Health Center states, “Our goal with this policy is to create a healthier environment for the seventh generation.”  

The policy was passed by the Red Cliff Housing Board on September 21, 2016.  The resolution reads as follows, “The Oski-Ombendaam New Hope housing complex shall be designated as smoke-free. Smoking is not permitted in any inside area of the designated housing complex.” Red Cliff Housing Authority (RCHA) defines “smoke” to include inhaling, burning, or carrying of any lighted cigarettes. Furthermore, RCHA defines cigarettes to include cigarettes, cigars, marijuana, any illegal substance that produces smoke, and electronic cigarettes.   

On behalf of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center and the Wisconsin Native American Tobacco Network at Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, thank you Red Cliff and other contributors, for taking a stance in saying commercial tobacco use is no longer acceptable in your tribal community. 

Thank you to the Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country grant staff, RCHA, Red Cliff Tribal Council and Executive Board, and to the staff at the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center who were involved with this initiative.