Tribal

The Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board, through the Northern Plains Tobacco Prevention Project (NPTPP) will launch the first regional asthma education and prevention campaign targeting both rural and urban American Indian tribal members, as well as tribally based health professionals. The Northern Plains Asthma Prevention Campaign will increase the awareness of asthma triggers in the home and basic measures of mitigation. The campaign will work toward the mission of improving the indoor air quality in the homes of American Indian children with asthma, which is congruent with the EPA’s strategic goal to increase the number of Americans experiencing healthier indoor air in homes, schools, and office buildings. The Northern Plains Asthma Prevention Campaign represents the first initiative to collaborate with multiple partners across and between tribal boundaries to provide environmental asthma trigger management education and which will promote the capacity development of tribal health care professionals toward assisting patients identify and mitigate asthma triggers in the home. The campaign will provide education on the management and prevention of environmental asthma triggers to a population of almost 200,000 tribal members residing on 17 reservations and two urban Indian service areas in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. The NPTPP will provide effective outreach by merging evidenced based practice with a culturally competent approach. Three measurable outcomes will be achieved as a result of this initiative:

•Increased knowledge of in-home asthma triggers and methods of trigger mitigation among American Indian tribal members and health professionals residing in the Northern Plains, as evidenced by a statistically significant increase in knowledge gained from community and health professional education by 9/30/09.

•Increased number of health care programs committed to conducting in-home asthma assessments, as evidenced by a 25% increase in the rate of in-home assessments conducted by health care programs from 10/1/06 to 9/30/09.

•Reduction in the rate of hospitalizations and emergency department visits as a result of asthma, as evidenced by a statistically significant decrease in pediatric visits among health care units containing case management staff/ programs trained to provide in-home asthma assessments by 9/30/09.

The Pawnee Asthma Program serves to improve the quality of life and access to care for children by forming partnerships with schools, conducting outreach and education, operating a clinic, and establishing an asthma registry, among other activities. The program assists with the following:

1) Kids under 18 years of age.
2) Asthma Register Database.
3) Designated Pharmacist & Pediatrician.
4) Asthma Clinic.
5) Use of Pediatric Spacers/Masks.
6) Peak Flow Meters and Asthma Plans.
7) Pediatric Spirometry.
8) Development of an Asthma PCC+
9) Required use of IHS Patient Education Protocols and Codes (PEPC).
10) Home Visit Referrals for Asthma Trigger Evaluation.
12) Asthma Trigger Home Abatement Funding.
13) Education by a certified Asthma Educator RN/PHN.
14) Collaboration with the Barnsdal, Frontier, Pawhuska and Wynona School Districts.

We have 1064 active patients diagnosed with Asthma. If the Doctor asks for a referral that I take a look over, I investigate for potential triggers in the home. I report and make recommendations and have canceled many things to assist families in correcting the problems. I have had some real success stories, but it was not easy. The headaches created for staff, supervisors, and patients was the difficult. But in the end, it was worth it.

I work for the Environmental Health programming for the Tribal governments. This includes water, sewer, food safety, and indoor air quality.

I will continue to reduce the exposure to the environmental health threats to the Tribal members.