Indian Health Service Essay

Over the year both positive and negative influences have influenced my learning. The skill I have developed for learning is my aspiration is to become a midwife, this influences my learning in the way that it gives me the hunger to learn new things and improve my knowledge and grades. By improving my knowledge I will be able to go onto the next stage of my development. I believe that if I did not have such a desire to be a midwife, it would affect my learning by creating a mental blockage which would stop my ability to take things in and learn as I would become lazy and not interested from the lack of direction in my life. As soon as I realised what I wanted to do as a career, it really highlighted my priorities and I found that I have

Though American Indians are enjoying an independent public health system with above $3 billion funds provided by Congress annually for delivering healthcare services to them, still figure and facts on health status of American Indians reveal that they are facing many difficulties and have to suffer from diverse type of illness and disease at a misappropriate level. Since long it was identified by medical communities that there are wide spread diseases diabetes, alcoholism, tuberculosis, suicide, unintentional injuries, and other health conditions among American Indian and they are dying of these diseases at shocking rates (American Heart Association [AHA], 2010). Through this essay I want to discuss the healthcare status of American Indians in the perspective of their culture as how it impacted and lead to develop mistrust between amongst the medical community and American Indians.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the U.S. government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. HHS is responsible for almost a quarter of all federal outlays and administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined. The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services. In addition, HHS is also responsible to provide better services to people by adapting to new technologies to keep pace with the advancement in technology. As we compare the health and human services from last ten years to present, it is very clear to analyze how health and human systems have improved over the years. The Department manages programs that cover a vast spectrum of activities that impact health, public health, and human services outcomes throughout the life span.

The IHS, which is part of the Affordable Care Act, issues some health care benefits to assist Native Americans on reservations (“Health Coverage For”). But people fail to identify loopholes in the ACA that prevent Native Americans from gaining proper access health care. For example, health care provided by the IHS only applies to federally recognized tribes. Although there are 567 federally recognized tribes today, there are also 460 tribes that still lack government recognition (Olife). This means that those who are not federally recognized are ineligible for Medicare needs that could be available to them if they were government recognized. In addition to that, medicaid has not expanded to at least 20 states (Norris). So even if Native tribes are government recognized, medicaid is not available to those who live in those states. In other words, Natives will have to find other means for helping themselves until more states expand on Medicaid. But do medical emergencies have time to wait? So in the case of Native Americans on reservations, even if they are entitled to health insurance under the ACA, if they are not federally recognized or live in a state that accepts medicaid, Natives will be forced to support

The Indian Health Service (IHS) Mission statement is to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Native to the highest level by delivery quality comprehensive health services. Their goal is to ensure that comprehensive, culturally acceptable personal and public health services are available and accessible to American Indians and Alaska Native people.

Healthcare is an ever changing entity with an ever changing population of clients. In current day 2016, the United Sates has become a melting pot of many different cultural backgrounds, which has led to changes within the system to accommodate the patient base. Unfortunately, not all changes have been able to effectively reach any and all persons from every background. We still see language and cultural barriers that have direct correlation to the inability to seek healthcare and or the ability to change cultural perspectives to ensure healthy lifestyles. Within this paper, the health of American Indian and Alaskan Native populations will be discussed along with the barriers to care and the

Muscogee Creek Nation Indian health clinic and medical center provide health care to patients with a tribal card. The agency has an emergency room, operating room, medical surgical inpatient hospital floor, primary adult care, pediatric primary care, gynecologist, pharmacy, lab, radiology unit, diabetic center, urgent care, and a rehabilitation center. The care through these centers is paid for by the United States Government and the patients receive free health care. Limited availability is experienced in the primary care and pediatric care offices where they are book appointments a month in a half out. The Indian health center has a wide range of medical equipment including vital sign machines, IV pumps, hoyer lifts, radiology equipment,

This policy is a 2-page document that outlines the main objective as being “to achieve an increasing level of health in Indian communities, generated and maintained by the Indian communities themselves” (Health Canada, 2007, p.1). The policy has three pillars. The first being community development by addressing both socio-economic development and cultural and spiritual development. This pillar aims to remove conditions of poverty and apathy that prevent Aboriginals from achieve a state of well-being. The second pillar addresses the strengthening between Indian people and federal government.

The NICWA, which mission and major focus is the dedication to well-being of American Indian children and families within the United States, have learned that they have to manimize the effectiveness when they have formed strategic alliances, collaborations and partnerships (www.nicwa.org). NICWA’s has partnerships with other child advocacy, child welfare TA, and training organizations. They also include American Indian organizations like Indian Health services, Native American Children 's Alliance, Native American Rights Fund, and National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).

It is because of this historical injustice meted against the American Indians over the historic development of this nation that there have been various legislations targeted toward ensuring the American Indians too get the adequate medical care. One most significant and helpful legislation

Indian Health Services (IHS) require patients to reside at certain area. If they leave the reservations of federal recognized tribe, they are no longer qualified for this insurance plan. Additionally, patients must visit IHS contracted providers and healthcare facilities. The plan will not cover services from the non-IHS providers and facilities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

For the American Indians and Alaska Natives it is important, because of social-geographic and financial isolation from the main land. There is still high rate of tuberculosis, diabetics and glaucoma patient in this group. Another problem is high rate of infant mortality and suicide among adult population of American Indians and Alaska Natives. To prevent infant mortality would be good to establish connection with travel nurses, who will be come to reservations annually and provide lectures and video to this

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an international organization that provides the next generation of health-care leaders with the skills to lead improvement in health care. Their mission is to improve health and healthcare worldwide. Their vision: Everyone has the best care and health possible (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2014). This organization provides valuable learning tools in several areas. Areas of focus include improvement capability of institutions using quality improvement, patient and family centered care, and

While there are quite a few negative qualities that can be attributed to the IHS, there has seemed to be a slight push since the age of self-determinism to cooperate with traditional healers and their etiologies. These traditional healers have been employed to help educate IHS practitioners and to help provide information on effective communication with Native American patients. However, there have been definite difficulties with having the traditional healers on staff at IHS clinics and hospitals. Some have stated that with the sacred nature of many traditional etiologies, a governmental organization may not be the best place for these beliefs to be practiced. In other cases, the

The country of India is second in terms of population size and the major cities are becoming overcrowded. Poverty rates in India have increased over the last few years and despite the economic boom the country is experiencing, the people are still living in overcrowded ghettos or slums. Overcrowding and population has brought healthcare challenges. In India, maternal and child mortality are still high, malnutrition among children and pregnant women increase yearly, and the country leads the numbers of Tuberculosis (TB) infection. Furthermore, India’s HIV problem has increased and now is third among 195 countries. The lack of basic healthcare, support and supplies from Indian official has only fueled the healthcare challenges it faces.