Subject: FW:
11-2-2011 - All Tribes Broadcast - Health Care Broadcast- Edition 46
From: Darren [mailto:darrenj@tribalselfgov.org]
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 8:17 AM
To: allsgcords@tribalselfgov.org
Subject: 11-2-2011 - All Tribes Broadcast - Health Care Broadcast-
Edition 46
**All Tribes Broadcast***All Tribes
Broadcast*** All Tribes Broadcast**
Tribal Leaders & Self-Governance Coordinators:
Please share the following information with your Tribal Leaders and
all interested parties in your area. Thank you.
Subject: Health Care Broadcast
Edition #46
November 2, 2011
·
HHS Requests
Nominations for the STAC
·
HHS Reports
Self-Governance Expansion Actions and Announces New Workgroup
·
GAO Releases Report on
IHS Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence
·
Invitation to American
Indian/Alaska Native Specific TeenScreen Webinar
·
IHS Creates
Meaningful Use Program Website and Listserv
HHS Requests
Nominations for the STAC
Last week, the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced four vacancies on the
Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee (STAC) – two primary delegates and two
alternate delegates. HHS is requesting nominations to fill the open
positions for primary delegates from the Aberdeen and Albuquerque areas
and alternate delegates from the Bemidji and Portland areas.
Established in
late 2010 the STAC is the first cabinet level tribal advisory committee
to any Secretary and has successfully been meeting for nearly a year. To date,
four meetings of the STAC have occurred. Secretary Sebelius, STAC members, and
senior leadership from HHS, have been working together to focus
collective efforts to improve how HHS works with tribes, delivers services, and
reduces barriers to access of HHS programs. The STAC signals a new
level of attention to government-to-government relationship between HHS and
tribal governments.
All nominations
are due to HHS by Thursday, December 1, 2011. Click here
to find out more information about the open positions, nominations process, and
the STAC. If you have questions please contact Stacey Ecoffey.
HHS Reports
Self-Governance Expansion Actions and Announces New Workgroup
Recently, the
HHS Intradepartmental Council on Native American Affairs (ICNAA) and Secretary
Sebelius’s Tribal Advisory Committee reviewed options to expand tribal
self-governance beyond the Indian Health Service (IHS) and into other operating
divisions within HHS. On Tuesday, October 25, 2011, HHS provided an update of
this review, announced two opportunities for tribal feedback, and requested
nominations for a new Self-Governance Tribal Federal Workgroup.
The letter
reports that HHS does not have the authority to expand self-governance to other
operating divisions. Despite this find, HHS intends to continue exploring
tribal self-governance opportunities through two education opportunities
(details below) and through the work of a newly established tribal federal
workgroup to deal with issues regarding the expansion of tribal
self-governance.
HHS is
currently seeking nominations for this workgroup. All nominations are due
Friday, December 9, 2011. In addition, ICNAA is looking for
responses to self-governance related questions. All questions are
included in the Dear Tribal Leader Letter releases last week and all responses
are due Friday, December 23, 2011.
For details
about nominations and pending questions, click here.
GAO Releases
Report on IHS Response to Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence
In
response to a Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 mandate, Government
Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on IHS ability to respond to
cases of domestic abuse and sexual assault. The report examined (1) the
ability of IHS and tribally operated hospitals to collect and preserve medical
forensic evidence involving cases of sexual assault and domestic violence, as
needed for criminal prosecution; (2) what challenges, if any, these hospitals
face in collecting and preserving such evidence; and (3) what factors besides
medical forensic evidence contribute to a decision to prosecute such cases.
GAO surveyed all 45 IHS and tribally operated
hospitals and interviewed IHS and law enforcement officials and prosecutors.
The survey of IHS and tribally operated hospitals showed that the ability of
these hospitals to collect and preserve medical forensic evidence in cases of
sexual assault and domestic violence--that is, to offer medical forensic
services--varies from hospital to hospital. Of the 45 hospitals, 26 reported
that they are typically able to perform medical forensic exams on site for
victims of sexual assault on site, while 19 reported that they choose to refer
sexual assault victims to other facilities. According to hospital officials,
the hospitals that provided services began to do so generally in response to an
unmet need, not because of direction from IHS headquarters.
GAO found that the utility of medical forensic
evidence in any subsequent criminal prosecution depends on hospital staff's
properly preserving an evidentiary chain of custody, which depends largely on
coordinating with law enforcement agencies. The report found that IHS has made significant
progress since 2010 in developing required policies and procedures on medical
forensic services for victims of sexual assault; nevertheless, challenges in
standardizing and sustaining the provision of such services remain.
In March 2011, IHS took a sound first step in what
is planned to be an ongoing effort to standardize medical forensic services by
issuing its first agency-wide policy on how hospitals should respond to adult
and adolescent victims of sexual assault. Remaining challenges include systemic
issues such as overcoming long travel distances between Indian reservations or
Alaska Native villages and IHS or tribal hospitals and developing staffing
models that overcome problems with staff burnout, high turnover, and
compensation, so that standardized medical forensic services can be provided
over the long term.
After surveying all 45 hospitals GAO made five
executive recommendations. The recommendations are summarized below.
1. HHS
and IHS should develop an implementation plan for the March 2011 IHS sexual
assault policy and monitor its progress.
2. Develop
a policy that details how IHS should respond to discrete incidents of domestic
violence without a sexual component and, working with Justice, develop a policy
for responding to incidents of child sexual abuse consistent with protocols
Justice develops for these incidents.
3. Clarify
whether sections 3.29.1 and 3.29.5 of the March 2011 IHS sexual assault policy
call for training and certification, or only training, of IHS physicians and
physician assistants performing sexual assault medical forensic exams.
4. Modify
the March 2011 IHS sexual assault policy so that it comprehensively and clearly
outlines (1) the process for approving subpoenas and requests for IHS employees
to provide testimony in federal, state, and tribal courts and (2) reflects the
provisions in section 263 of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, including
that subpoenas and requests not approved or disapproved within 30 days are
considered approved.
5. Explore
ways to structure medical forensic activities within IHS facilities so that
these activities come under an individual's normal duties or unit's official
area of responsibility, in part to ensure that providers are compensated for
performing medical forensic services.
Click here to read GAO’s
full report and here to
review the IHS Sexual Assault Response Policy.
Invitation to
American Indian/Alaska Native Specific TeenScreen Webinar
This special webinar event, co-sponsored by the Center
for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute and the TeenScreen
National Center, will highlight the impact of these school and clinic-based
screening programs, and offer hands-on tips for incorporating adolescent
screening in tribal communities. The webinar titled, “American Indian and
Alaska Native Youth & Mental Illness:How Tribal Communities Can Reach
Troubled Teens,” will be hosted Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.
EST.
A new
report on the mental health of Native American youth tells a troubling and all
too familiar story. American Indian and Alaska Native youth struggle
disproportionately with serious depression, substance abuse and other mental
and behavioral health concerns. The adolescent suicide rate for youth in Indian
country remains at more than twice the national average.
Against this disturbing backdrop, local tribal communities are implementing
mental health screening initiatives that are known to make a difference –
identifying at-risk youth and improving access to the mental health services
they need.
Patrick Carroll, MD, a specialist in adolescent medicine, will
discuss his screening experiences at the Navajo Area Indian Health Service. Renée
Ouellet of the La Frontera-EMPACT-Suicide Prevention Center will highlight
the school-based screening efforts in the Gila River Indian Ak-Chin Indian
Communities.
Christina Newport, Program Manager at the TeenScreen National
Center will provide an overview of TeenScreen’s program and resources.
Click here
to register for the webinar.
IHS Creates
Meaningful Use Program Website and Listserv
The IHS Meaningful Use (MU) Program has created a web
page and listserv to provide awareness and useful information concerning the
national initiative for Meaningful Use of certified Electronic Health Records
(EHR).
While some of the information on the Meaningful Use
website concerns the Resource and Patient Management System (RPMS) EHR, most of
the content is designed to be useful to any eligible hospital or eligible
provider interested in the MU program, regardless of which EHR they may use.
In addition to a resource website, IHS has created a
listserv provide up to date information on Meaningful Use and to help answer
questions and clarify responses. To subscribe to this listserv, follow
the steps below.
1. Send
an email from the address that you intend to subscribe to listserv@listserv.ihs.gov.
2. Leave
the subject line blank.
3. Type
“Subscribe MU First name Last name” in the body of the e-mail message
Resources for preparing your site for Meaningful Use,
using the Certified EHR, and signing up for the Meaningful Use incentives can
be found here.
For questions,
please contact CDR Christopher Lamer.
(Info/Fwd Courtesy of NCAI)
**All Tribes
Broadcast***All Tribes Broadcast*** All Tribes Broadcast**
Thank you and hope all is
well,
SGCE Tribal Consortium Staff.
www.tribalselfgov.org
Phone: (360) 380-1820
Fax: (360) 380-1981
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