National Indian Health Board

Public Health policy and programsthe public Health policy and programs department of the National Indian Health Board seeks to bolster the public Health infrastructure and services within Indian country. To this end, nihb operates programs that provide capacity building and technical assistance to tribes and tribal organizations to provide education, and strengthen outreach, program development, research capacity, and service delivery across a variety of public Health issues and topics (including but not limited to: diabetes, climate change, substance misuse, intimate partner violence, maternal Health adverse childhood experiences, emergency response and planning, infection control, and smoking cessation). As part of this work, nihb often brings together groups of elected leaders and tribal public Health professionals to share best practices, exchange information, and create a forum in which the tribal voice can be elevated. Nihb also utilizes a policy-based approach to strengthen the voice and presence of tribes and tribal leaders on the National level through the provision of support to tribal leaders serving on federal advisory committees; training on how to build communicative bridges with community-based, tribally-based, and federally-based partners; analyzing federal action that could impact tribal public Health; and ensuring that conversations around racial and Health equity incorporate the legal, political and social perspective of federally recognized american Indian and Alaska native tribes.

Oral Health and dental therapythe tribal oral Health initiative provides outreach and education on expanded oral Health options for tribes, and support tribes as they seek to implement those options. This work advances the skills and capacity of tribes to consider dental therapy as both a clinical and policy issue. Nihb provides technical assistance, information dissemination services, National coordination and messaging, and research on the policy impact and implementation at the state and National level. Nihb provides sub-awards to tribes, tribal organizations, and tribal colleges/universities to increase their capacity to expand and manage their own Health systems, and construct a policy, clinical, or educational system that would support dental therapy. Nihb hosts numerous educational workshops, webinars and meetings on dental therapy in order to make sure that tribes and tribal organizations have access to the most up to date policy information and implementation support. Nihb also monitors state legislation relevant to the advancement of dental therapy in key states and report out on any significant advancements. Nihb co-chairs a National group of stakeholders working in this space to ensure complimentary efforts, resource sharing, and collaboration.

Regulatory analysis and congressional relationsthe policy center at the National Indian Health Board research the logs of federal action and analyze the impact or potential impact of these regulations, laws, codes, policies, judicial decisions, and executive orders on the tribal and federal component of the Indian Health system. Nihb writes summaries on these actions, disseminates information to ensure that tribes understand any such course of action and its ramifications (either potentially positive or negative), and works with tribal and federal leaders on the implementation of such actions. Nihb has a research function that helps to collect and synthesize data on the Health system and the impact of laws and regulations and provides this data to tribal leaders so that they can make informed decisions about how they would like to see the tribal or federal Health system operate. This arm of nihb also helps to facilitate formal consultation or listening sessions between tribal and federal leaders as required by law. Operating as a cross-departmental initiative, nihb organized, launched, and operating a National tribal covid-19 response that implemented both programmatic and policy approaches to assuring that tribal heath systems had the information and resources that they needed to mount an effective and timely response to the local outbreak of the global covid-19 pandemic. As part of this initiative, nihb created a web-based hub, informational resources on varying aspects of the pandemic, hosted educational webinars, researched federal and state policy actions, and created a National, tribal information dissemination network that consisted of e-mail announcements, daily covid newsletters, and social media posts to assure that tribes remained informed on the latest covid-related developments. Nihb also convened tribal leaders regularly to provide real-time updates and serve as a communication liaison between the tribes and the federal government.

Other programs