Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support (CDC)
The Tribal Public Health Capacity Building and Quality Improvement Umbrella Cooperative agreement is a 5-year cooperative agreement awarded by the Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support (CSTLTS) within the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC), to strengthen and improve public health infrastructure and performance in tribal public health systems. The intent of the program is to assist tribal entities with strengthening tribal public health leadership and workforce; improve access to tribal-specific data, surveillance, and analytics; develop and adapt evidence-informed programs, services, and resources; and improve public health policies and organizational practices that increase the sustainability of tribal public health systems. The ultimate aim of this program is to increase the capacity of Indian Country to identify, respond to, and mitigate public health threats and decrease morbidity and mortality among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
This project will result in increased implementation of tools and processes that build tribal operational capacity and effectiveness; increased use of core and discipline-specific public health competencies among tribal public health workers; improved tribal health data collection, maintenance, interpretation, and dissemination of findings; and established multi-sectorial partnerships to address capacity building and quality improvement of tribal public health systems.
Our activities will include the following:
- Conducting a program assessment to increase the number of organizations that report progress toward meeting national public health department standards across more than one domain
- Providing competency training to the public health workforce to increase the percentage of staff who received competency-based training and report improved knowledge or skills in core competencies
- Providing training to tribes and tribal-serving organizations on data collection, analysis, and reporting to increase the number of organizations whose capacity to collect or enhance tribal health data is improved
- Establishing community partnerships for improved public health and outcomes to increase the number of organizations that identify community assets and address public health needs through collaborative processes
This cooperative agreement is part one of a two-part funding strategy. Supplemental funding is only available to those who receive this cooperative agreement. The SPTHB will continue to seek supplemental funding through this cooperative agreement as it becomes available. The first supplemental funding we received is Opioid Overdose Prevention in Tribal Communities supplement through the National Centers for Injury Prevention and Controls. The purpose of this funding strategy is to address the critical need for public health prevention and intervention in Indian Country during the opioid crisis by directly funding American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
The target population for the project is the Indian Health Services Oklahoma City Area (IHS-OCA). The IHS-OCA service population for 2016 was 427,060, which is by far the largest service area in the U.S. Almost 20% of all IHS users in the U.S. live in the IHS-OCA. In the Southern Plains region, there are 877,475 AI/ANs alone or in a combination of one or more other races.
Meanwhile, the IHS-OCA has historically been underfunded by IHS, consistently in the bottom 25% of all IHS areas, and continues to be one of three areas routinely receiving the lowest funding. Delivery of care becomes substantially more complicated when the direct services system is underfunded. American Indians make a substantial contribution to the culture, health, and economic prosperity of Oklahoma and surrounding states. Even so, the health outcomes of American Indians in the IHS-OCA lag behind the general population. Therefore, focusing efforts on tribal public health capacity building and quality improvement can vastly improve healthcare services and health outcomes at reduced costs in an efficient and sustainable way.
The SPTHB OKTEC serves the 44 tribes across Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas. Through this cooperative agreement, we received supplemental funding in the amount of $1 million to focus on opioid overdose prevention in our tribal communities. This is an amazing accomplishment for our organization, as the opioid crisis has gravely affected our tribal communities and historically our area has been underfunded.
The SPTHB OKTEC is in year one of this five-year cooperative agreement.
Southern Plains Tribal Health Board
Phone: (405) 652-9200
Fax: (405) 840-7052
Email: info@spthb.org
