Seven Directions, a Center for Indigenous Public Health based at the University of Washington in Seattle, hosted the Our Nations, Our Journeys 2023 Indigenous Public Health Conference from June 27-29, at the Mystic Lake Center in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Over 300 participants, including Indigenous public health leaders, activists, researchers, and collaborators, convened to explore the theme, “Healing from the Opioid Epidemic through Strengths-based Approaches and Data Sovereignty.” Participants learned about and discussed an array of topics, such as culturally grounded approaches to healing and recovery, opportunities to improve data for substance use prevention and response, and efforts to promote Indigenous data sovereignty. Among the attendees and presenters, there was a strong representation from many of the Tribal Epidemiology Centers.

 

Seven Directions is immensely grateful for all of the knowledge shared by participating TEC Directors and staff. See some of the conference highlights below!

 

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For more information about each of the 12 TECs, visit https://tribalepicenters.org/12-tecs/.

 

With the reauthorization of the Indian Healthcare Improvement Act in 2010, TECs were designated as “public health authorities” which allows TECs the same access to protected health information/data for public health purposes as other public health authorities, like state health departments.

These activities were supported through a variety of funding opportunities including the coordination and collaboration activities made possible by the Indian Health Service and the CDC’s Tribal Epidemiology Centers Public Health Infrastructure program, National Center for Chronic Disease and Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy Tribes Program.

 

TEC Public Health Authority 101

 

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For more information about each of the 12 TECs, visit https://tribalepicenters.org/12-tecs/.

 

The Southern Plains Tribal Health Board recently concluded its very first virtual internship cohort with 46 students who completed the virtual 8-week experience. The Tribal Health Experiential Student Internship Seminar (THESIS) program was one of seven organizations awarded, and the only program to focus solely on Tribal public health and Native American health.

 

The program gave undergraduate students nationwide a glimpse of working in Indian Country with first-hand accounts of staff actively employed in positions within Tribal nations, universities, TECs, health departments, and federal and other partnering Tribal organizations.

 

Funded by the CDC’s Office of Health Equity (OHE), students were led through a wide range of courses focusing on Tribal public health with a curriculum around evaluation, cultural competency, racial misclassification, data collection, epidemiology, and professional skills. Students also experienced being paired with a mentor, who guided them throughout the 8-weeks on a research poster project that would be presented at the CDC Lewis Ferguson Showcase in Atlanta, Georgia. Examples of research posters included topics over food deserts, culturally relevant Native youth curriculum, Native American oral health, mental health, and health disparities among Native American communities.

Through THESIS, students were not only exposed to tribal public health as a career but also to the diverse landscape that is public health. “We want students to be exposed to aspects of Native public health to gain different perspectives when choosing their profession. We often hear, ‘I wish I would have been taught that’ from working public health employees,” Gary Piercey, Program Coordinator, said. “This gives students a chance to really investigate some of the topics that are meaningful to them.”

Abby Mayes, a member of the Cherokee Nation stated, “I enjoyed the THESIS program greatly. I enjoyed the topics that were presented and was able to research how the COVID-19 pandemic directly impacted the Native American population within the state of Oklahoma in 2021. This internship gave me the opportunity to learn about Tribal Health, which I had yet to learn about from my previous public health courses in college.”

THESIS intern students at the CDC Showcase in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jordan Craig, a member of the Cherokee Nation, answers questions over her poster presentation, “Addressing Gaps in Prenatal Care for American Indian and Alaska Native People with Opioid Use Disorder.”

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If you know of an undergraduate student interested in Tribal public health, applications for the 2024 year will be available on October 1, 2023, at the website https://thesis.spthb.org/.

The Alaska Native Epidemiology Center (ANEC) established a new data use agreement with CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. The agreement facilitates the transmission of data previously unavailable to the EpiCenter: line-level STI data for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis (by stage), and congenital syphilis.

 

These data will allow the EpiCenter to report on STI incidence rates among Alaska Native people for purposes of public health surveillance and program support for our Tribal Health Organization partners.

 

These activities were supported in part by the Tribal Epidemiology Centers Public Health Infrastructure program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease and Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy Tribes Program.

 

For more information about each of the 12 TECs, visit https://tribalepicenters.org/12-tecs.

Culminating a year of planning and presentations to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) Tribal Technical Advisory Group (TTAG) Data Subcommittee, Dr. Kevin English, Director of the Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center, presented “Tribal Epidemiology Centers 101” at the March 15, 2023 CMS TTAG meeting. The full TTAG is comprised of members representing each of the 12 geographic areas of the Indian Health Service (IHS) and the three national Indian organizations. The TTAG provides advice and input to CMS on policy and program issues impacting American Indians and Alaska Native people served by CMS programs.

In his presentation, Dr. English shared the mission and goals of the 12 Tribal Epidemiology Centers and the work they do at the request of, and in partnership with the Tribes, Tribal organizations, urban Indian organizations, and their communities. In total, about 50 TTAG committee members and other partners joined for the presentation and a robust Q&A discussion. Presentations to groups like the CMS TTAG are crucial for building awareness about the scope of services the TECs can provide. These activities were supported through a variety funding opportunities including the coordination and collaboration activities made possible by the Tribal Epidemiology Centers Public Health Infrastructure program funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease and Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy Tribes Program.

 

Tribal Epidemiology Centers 101

 

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For more information about each of the 12 TECs, visit https://tribalepicenters.org/12-tecs/.