Strengthening Tribal Public Health Systems
(Formally Tribal ASI)

Background

Historically, Tribes ensured their communities’ health by integrating systems of health and well-being. As with most if not all indigenous people, prior to European contact, Native Americans had complex traditions, cultural practices, social organizations, economies, forms of government, education, and spirituality that interrelatedly worked together to ensure the health and survival of the people.

Contemporary Tribal public health systems, shaped by a history of colonialism, epidemics, government policy, and a lack of funding evolved along a different trajectory than their local and state counterparts and hence they are often overlooked or underrepresented in the US public health system. “Tribal nations have an inherent right to promote and protect the health and welfare of their citizens, using the methods most relevant for their communities.” ¹ As such, the National Indian Health Board supports Tribal nations as they rebuild and define their current systems.

Since 2008, the (NIHB) has partnered with Tribal nations and national partners in an effort to advance public health practice in Indian Country. With the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIHB has provided funding and technical assistance to Tribes pursuing performance improvement and public health accreditation projects and initiatives.

Strong Systems, Stronger Communities

Strong Systems, Stronger Communities (SSSC), (created in 2018), is a funding opportunity provided by the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) and supported by the CDC. This opportunity builds on a former project - NIHB’s Tribal Accreditation Support Initiative (ASI) and continues NIHB’s commitment to strengthening Tribal public health systems by offering support and technical assistance specifically to Tribes as they complete projects to improve their performance, meet national public health accreditation standards, and/or promote interconnection across the public health system to improve population health.

The intended outcomes of SSSC include;

• Increased performance improvement practice
• Increased innovation in response to system integration challenges, and
• Progress toward national public health standards.

While performance improvement focuses on internal changes to improve services, system improvement focuses on incorporating health equity and interconnection of various systems that can impact the public health of a community. Interconnection is defined as "the linkage of programs, activities, and/or stakeholders to promote overall efficiency and effectiveness and achieve gains in population health."

Funding Opportunity

Join our mailing list to receive notifications about current and upcoming funding opportunities. If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Dean at [email protected]

Tribal Accreditation Learning Community (TALC) Webinar Series

TALC is a free, monthly webinar series. It is designed for sharing and learning about public health performance improvement, system improvement, and accreditation in Tribal communities.

For more information, click here.

Upcoming Events

The National Indian Health Board (NIHB), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is hosting a free webinar on the Public Health Accreditation Board's (PHAB) Standards & Measures for Assessing Tribal Access to Care within the Journey to Public Health Accreditation on Monday, July 29, 2024, from 3:00-4:30 PM EDT.

Domain 7 of the Public Health Accreditation Board’s Standard & Measures highlights assessing the engagement of health care delivery systems and relevant partners who work together to ensure access to care. These collaborative efforts often show up during work across sectors to improve social services and when ensuring access during service disruptions. Assessing access to care is an important component of determining strategies and expansion priorities for Tribal public health departments and other services that contribute to public health capacity and efficiency.

Join NIHB and guest speakers from Ho-Chunk Health Care Center, Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center, and the Public Health Accreditation Board for an overview and conversation on the assessment of access to care as outlined within the journey to public health accreditation recognition.

Register in advance for the webinar here.