NAHC News - Quarterly Newsletter - Fall 2014

Fall 2014

NAHCNEWS

Serving the Community since 1972

NAHC’s Mission Native American Health Center’s mission is to provide comprehensive services to improve the health and well-being of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and residents of the surrounding communities, with respect for cultural and linguistic differences.

7G1D stands for 7 Generations 1 Direction. Our Commitment to Continued Quality Improvement is Seven Generations One Direction.

Benefits Check-Up

by Patricia Leyva

Did you know on average NAHC pays approximately 30% of your annual salary for just benefits?

For example, if you are an employee making $40,000 a year, NAHC pays an additional $12,000 dollars per year in benefits alone. Not only does this include Medical/Vision and Dental coverage, NAHC also gives every employee 21 days of PTO or sick and vacation time every year during the first two years of their employment. We even celebrate 13 holidays and one is for your birthday!

And don’t we all just love the discounted movie tickets? Regardless of your family size NAHC has an awesome benefit package to meet your needs!

Whether you are looking to invest in your retirement or get that extra dental work that you have been needing, NAHC’s benefits can assist you in planning for your overall healthcare goals.

Did we mention our package also features an Employee Assistance Program, a Travel Assistance program and Commuter Checks. This article highlights these benefits below! Feel free to contact Human Resources for more information or questions regarding NAHC’s entire benefit package. See next page for details of the exciting programs available to you!

Serving the Community since 1972

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Benefits

Benefits Check-Up continued from page 1 The Employee Assistance Program Stressed? Feeling stuck in your career?

Legal Issues? Financial Issues? No need to worry, NAHC has your back!

NAHC offers an Employee Assistance Program through our Life Insurance carrier, UNUM. Your work-life balance is important to NAHC. Unum can assist you in finding solutions to everyday challenges of work and home as well as more serious issues involving emotional and physical well-being. The EAP can support you through the following ways: personal relationship information, legal consultations with licensed attorneys, financial planning assistance, stress management and career development services, just to name a few. The EAP Program is available by phone and you can speak confidentially with a master’s level consultant to clarify your needs, evaluate options and create an action plan or you can have a Face-to-Face meeting with a local counselor up to three times per issue for a short-term problem solution.

Travel Assistance Have you ever lost your passport or lost a prescription while traveling? Surprise!

NAHC has your back again! Our Travel Assistance program through our Life Insurance carrier, UNUM can assist you!

Worldwide emergency travel assistance services are available to you with just one phone call.

When traveling for business or pleasure, in a foreign country or just 100 miles from home, you and your family can

Sharing of Stories Sharing of Stories: Three generations of Native women shared their stories and created a dialogue in the StoryCorps booth in San Francisco last week.

The Antones (Tohono O’odham) shared their stories of resilience and strength. The Native American Health Center collaborated with StoryCorps to support the telling of stories from our community, by our community. Visit StoryCorps.com to learn more about the process and hear other stories.

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Serving the Community since 1972

count on getting help in the event of a medical emergency. Which includes: hospital admission guarantee, emergency medical evacuation, transportation for a friend or family member to join hospitalized patient, prescription replacement assistance, and passport replacement assistance are just to name a few. The services are provided by Assist America Inc. in which Assist America Inc. pays for all services but you must call them first!

Please see your site administrative assistants for wallet size cards & flyers.

Commuter Checks How do they work? By using pre-tax dollars to pay for all or a portion of your commute you can save up to 40% or $600 dollars per year on your commute.

That means that Uncle Sam will not tax you on that part of your income.

However, there are limits; currently you can deduct up to $130 per month in pre-tax dollars for Transit and $250 per month in pre-tax dollars for parking from your paycheck to help defray your commuting expenses.

The Commuter Check link is located in HRIS (Human Resources Information System) under the Important Dates & Documents tab. * The IRS Changes the limits annually so please refer back to this website for updates to the limits.

Member Portal

NAHC Member Portal Launch Delayed Stay Tuned for More Information!

The EHR Team would like to formally announce the delay of the NAHC Member Portal. Originally, NAHC had planned to launch the Member Portal in the Fall of 2014. The Member Portal will give our patients secure 24/7 access to their personal health information and tools, such as appointment requests, refill requests, and secure messaging.

As health professionals, we are required

by HIPAA regulations to withhold certain health information that may put the patient’s safety or wellbeing at risk.

Examples of this type of information may include abuse, certain mental health diagnoses, sensitive lab results, etc. NAHC is working with Intelichart to develop this functionality.

Our new target for the NAHC Member Portal launch is the Summer of 2015, although this date is also subject to change.

The reason for the delay comes from the difficulty vendors are having in developing a solution to the issue of restricting sensitive diagnoses and other information from appearing in the Portal.

Ideally, a health provider should be able to restrict certain diagnoses and lab results from appearing in the Portal on a case by case basis.

For questions about the NAHC Member Portal, contact Meriah Gille or Lillawa Willie.

NAHC is committed to providing our members with a Portal that is a safe and complimentary tool for improving health.

Serving the Community since 1972

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NAHCNEWS

GRAND OPENING at Fred Finch’s Rising Harte Wellness Center

Seven Generations School Based Health Services Open their 8th Location In October, NAHC’s school-based health department launched its 8th satellite clinic with the opening of Fred Finch’s Rising Harte Wellness Center. This school-linked health center is a unique model serving both Bret Harte Middle School students and youth (16-24) who are exiting the foster care system.

Co-located within the Wellness Center is also a satellite audiology clinic operated by the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness. NAHC will be providing the medical and dental services for these underserved populations.

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Serving the Community since 1972

Nutrition and Fitness

Did you know?

Group Medical Visits Offered at NAHC! Did you know that NAHC offers group medical visits to our members? Group medical visits bring our members together into the same room for a shared learning experience with their healthcare provider.

learn how to lead healthier and active lives through pediatric group visits.

In San Francisco, Dr. Weismann-Ward has been connecting members to community gardens, and traditional healing methods.

These shared visits provide a unique opportunity for our members to talk about their health in a way that feels like friends sitting around a circle learning from one another.

These and other shared visits at NAHC have begun to transform our member’s perspective of healthcare.

There is a move away from using medical appointments to only treat health problems. Instead, members are asking for group medical visits to learn how to prevent health problems from happening in the first place.

Group medical visits provide a unique opportunity for our members and for our health center. For our members, they integrate education with medical treatment. They provide members

Over the last year, Native American Health Center has begun to offer more and more of these visits to our members. Adisa Willmer, MD taught members in her Chronic Back Pain Group how to decrease and cope with chronic pain. Last fall, Shannon Wirth, FNP helped children and their families

with the opportunity to connect and learn from other people with similar medical concerns. For our clinic, staff have the opportunity to step outside of their traditional roles and connect with their patients on a more intimate level. Thus far, our members have been overwhelmingly satisfied.

Help us spread the word about this unique service! Find flyers at the back of this newsletter.

Contact Jessica Gutierrez for more information about upcoming programs and dates at (510) 535-4461 or email jessicag@nativehealth.org.

Serving the Community since 1972

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Hand Up - Crowdfunding with a Twist!

We’ve Partnered with Hand Up! Crowdfunding with a new twist!

How it Works!

It’s as easy as a few steps. And you get to see results!

Hand Up’s charitable giving platform provides donors with a new, simple and direct way to impact the lives of their homeless neighbors and other low-income locals. HandUp connects these populations to case workers at some of the most well-respected social service organizations in the nation for further assistance. With resources and words of support, our community of donors also strengthen safety nets that our members can call upon in times of need.

Stay Tuned!

We will soon be launching our HandUp pages on December 8th with identified members. Please contact Marge Torrance with any questions you may have: MargeT@nativehealth.org or visit HandUp.org Our San Francisco Community Wellness Department has partnered with HandUp, a crowdfunding resource for homeless and at risk community members. We have four members who have created profiles and goals in collaboration with their clinicians and care coordinators.

Member goals include fundraising for: new shoes and a security guard card, a computer for a youth so he can particpate in a coding class at school, a caregiver’s participation in an after school field trip with her son and a computer for a member to explore education and career opportunities.

Why Hand Up?

100% of donations reach members of HandUp. Members redeem donations via our trusted network of community partners.The Native Ameican Heatlh Center is now a partner!

Other partners are local social service organizations that work with selected members to set up a profile and make purchases with funds received.

About HandUp

The idea for HandUp started as a simple side project in early 2013 because we wanted to do something about homelessness that’s so visible on the streets of San Francisco. With the support and encouragement of Tumml, Project Homeless Connect, and so many others we turned this small side-project into a full-fledged company. Over the next year, HandUp attracted funding from some of Silicon Valley’s most experienced investors and we started the journey of expanding their community of giving across the country.

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Serving the Community since 1972

Integration

Warm Hand Offs

Increasing communication between sites and departments In order to help meet the complex needs of the 7D Medical Clinic, the Integrated Behavioral Health Team was asked to create a system that would allow for immediate access to IBH staff if behavioral health needs surfaced during medical appointments. The resulting warm hand off schedule

provides IBH social workers dedicated and unscheduled time to meet with members during our clinic hours, emphasizing integrated care and providing an opportunity to establish therapeutic relationships. Feedback has been positive from both our members, who appreciate the immediate

response to their urgent concerns, and medical providers who can be certain behavioral health needs have been appropriately referred for services.

For more information, please contact Rosa Solorzano, LCSW, Integration Manager at (510) 535-6438.

NAHC Staff Speak-Up NAHC is a community focused health organization staff with strong academic ties that build relationships with other community organizations.

Staff members at NAHC work as a team. I provide integrated care by working with pediatricians in the community teaching dental health they can provide dental information/care to their patients.

Eric Smith SF Pediatric Dentist

Serving the Community since 1972

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Tree of Life

Women’s Circle find Healing in Group Therapy The Tree of Life group project is offered in the Women’s Circle group in Oakland. The Tree of Life is born from the idea that every woman is pure inside and do not have any resentments, doubts, ability to hate. When they grow up, society begins to teach pain, hate, resentment, jealousy, all the negative feelings.

That creates roots that affect your life in growth.

When you grow up you could look very happy and nice, but inside you have roots of sadness, negative feelings.

The project is based in removing the negative aspects bound in the roots below. There were stickers representing the roots. The project is to remove a part of the roots, and transform it into a commitment represented by the flower at the top. By saying “I don’t want to hate anymore in my life, instead I want to love.” At that point, the participant removes the negative feelings with the positive feelings represented by the blooms reaching toward the sky until the tree is completely flowering.

Women have a lot of beautiful emotional release with this project. This is a method of release, and renewal so these women can grow into joy.

Participants in the group spoke to how they felt transformed sharing their commitments within a support group of women. Facilitators of this project were Kathryn Budd and Nina Gutierrez, Community Wellness Department.

Women’s Circle meets on Mondays from 1:30pm - 3:30pm in the SAGE Center at 3124 International Blvd. Oakland.

To learn more about ongoing groups at our different Community Wellness sites call these numbers: SF OAK RICH

(415) 621-4371 (510) 434-5454 (510) 232-7020

#TeamJackie

Native American Health Center Welcomes you Back!

What was the experience like, both positive and challenging?

It was a once in a lifetime experience. I have always been a fan of the show and have seen all of the incredible things that it does for people’s lives. It was a place where I could concentrate on me and really stop to take a look at my life and to see what wasn’t working for me. I was in a “stuck” place for a long time and felt like I didn’t know how to get out of it. On the Biggest Loser, I found people who believed in me and helped me to believe in myself again. I could no longer “hide” from myself and having trainers and other contestants who understood where I was coming from really changed me in so many ways. The hardest part of being on the show by far was missing my daughters.

Communication was very limited and it was tough but I don’t regret the experience for a minute! It still feels surreal that I was given this opportunity Overall, how did participating on the Biggest loser, impact you?

Being on the Biggest Loser made me believe in myself again. I had lost my

own personal power and confidence over the years and I have found it and I will never let it go again! I made so many great long life friendships with the other contestants; we continue to support one another from home. Also the support that I’ve been given from my family, friends, the community and even strangers has been incredible and humbling. It really pushes me to keep going!

cook it. This may not seem like a big deal to most people but it really was for me and it benefits my daughters immensely now.

What were some take-aways and lessons learned?

My plans are to continue to live the new way of healthy living that I have learned.

I’ve always liked being a role model by doing as opposed to just telling others; that’s how I led my basketball team when I played and was captain.

I’d love to help develop a community wellness program for our community which supports the community with their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. My dream is to have a cultural center in the city with a gym and space to develop activities to support wellness.

The biggest lesson learned for me is that it’s ok to take care of ME. That I am a good mother and person for needing to think of myself and taking care of myself also benefits my children. I feel healthy emotionally, mentally and physically and it benefits everyone in my life both personally and professionally. Growing up in poverty, I was accustomed to whatever my mom could afford to put on the table which usually included a lot of processed food. I really had no idea what eating healthy even meant. At the Biggest Loser we were taught the basics of healthy food, how to shop, prepare and

You are now a role model for the community in fitness and self-care.

What are some hopes and plans on what to do with the new role?

Personally and within the Native American Health Center.

Responses collected by Frolayne Carlos-Wallace, Evaluator, Community Wellness Department.

Serving the Community since 1972

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Native Youth Conference - Washington DC

Our Stories, Our Voices SAMSHA Native Youth Conference - DC

Staff and Youth from the Native American Health Center presented at the first annual Native Youth Conference hosted by SAMSHA’s Office of Tribal Affairs and Policy.

Our Stories, Our Voices assisted youth in recording each other’s experiences and hope after attending the conference. Youth from across Indian Country and villages of Alaska participated in a rotating media crew and shared responsibilities of speaking, camera-work, sound while training each other! Stay tuned to hear what they said! If you haven’t already followed our channel on Youtube, you can do so by visiting www.youtube.com/7gen1D and hit SUBSCRIBE!

Workshop Facilitators and Co-Presenters: Lina Blanco Graphic Designer at NAHC Javier Patty Native Youth Assistant Victoria Ramirez Native Youth Assistant Youth Services Assistant at NAHC Crystal Salas Youth Services Director at NAHC

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Serving the Community since 1972

U.S. nutrition program for mothers, infants sees falling demand Our very own NAHC WIC Director Sarah Monje is in Reuters.

The article highlights the need for states and agencies to use innovation and participant-centered principles in providing support to community members with WIC. (Reuters) - A government nutrition program for pregnant mothers and small children has not kept pace with technology and U.S. poverty experts say its paper voucher system is driving lowincome women away from the program when they need it most.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, has seen a sharp drop in participation since 2010, unlike food stamps and other anti-poverty programs that ballooned during the 2007-9 recession and the economic recovery that followed, government figures show.

“WIC providers are tearing their hair, beating their chests, ‘what are they doing wrong?’” said Laurie True, California WIC Association director.

Poverty experts say the shrinking demand does not reflect less need. They are pushing for faster changes to an outdated, cumbersome distribution process they say stigmatizes recipients.

Participants complain of customers “shaming” them in grocery lines, said Sarah Monje, California’s Native American Health Center WIC director.

“I can feel the aura: ‘Oh my god, this girl is taking forever,’” said WIC recipient Marquel Davis of Austin, Texas.

With a generation of Americans “used to getting everything on their smartphones,” True said, WIC is still “stuck in the handson experience.”

“That doesn’t make the program as attractive to people who may be on the border lines, the working poor and very busy - most of our participants work at least one job,” she said.

Congress mandated in 2010 that WIC switch to electronic benefit cards by 2020.

All but nine U.S. states still rely on paper vouchers that program directors say hold up grocery-store lines and embarrass mothers.

But the smaller, more targeted WIC started shrinking years earlier and to a greater extent relative to enrollment, USDA data shows.

Davis, 26, said it was a hassle trying to redeem her WIC checks before Texas switched to an electronic system several years ago. The program pays only for specified foods sold in certain quantities.

The social stigma, always a factor for some people, was accentuated by a distribution system largely unchanged in four decades, directors said.

“You’ve got to separate [your groceries] and make sure it’s the right one, right size, and on top of that, you got to sign and they got to initial,” Davis said. “It’s just hectic, especially if you have a kid shopping with you and you’re trying to get home.”

WIC gives low-income pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding women and kids up to age five vouchers worth about $43 each month for formula and healthy foods that adhere to federal nutrition requirements, such as limiting added sugar in yogurt and mandating that bread include whole wheat flour.

The program requires recipients to attend classes on eating well and breastfeeding.

Though WIC grew fairly steadily since its inception in 1972, U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows it shrank 10.6 percent between fiscal year 2010 and May 2014.

Staff members “don’t have a sense of declining need in their communities,” said analyst Zoe Neuberger of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a povertyfocused think tank.

Participants dropped from 9.2 million to 8.2 million from 2010 to May, decreasing in every state and the District of Columbia, according to USDA. In Georgia, caseload plummeted 46 percent since 2009.

Conversely, food stamp enrollment skyrocketed from 28.2 million in 2008 to 47.6 million in 2013 under expansions in President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, though it fell to 46.2 million in May after benefits expired last November.

SOCIAL STIGMA

Many women have switched to food stamps, which use a debit-like card but lack such WIC benefits as affording expensive baby formula, feeding children healthier food and learning workplace breastfeeding rights, directors said.

Being required to attend WIC advising sessions every one to three months can be a problem for low-income workers.

Those include illegal immigrants, who may be deterred over fear of an immigration crackdown, New York-based nonprofit Community Food Advocates co-founder Agnes Molnar said. The WIC program does not require proof of citizenship, though state or tribal residency is required.

Michael Osur, who runs 18 WIC clinics in southern California’s Riverside County, saw an almost 40 percent drop in the percentage of people requesting materials in Spanish from 2007 to 2013.

Lingering effects from last October’s government shutdown, when clinics shuttered or scraped by on reserve funds, also hurt WIC, National WIC Association CEO Douglas Greenaway said.

If caseload continues to drop, Congress will cut funding and clinics will close, consolidate and limit overtime and weekend services, True said.

In California, Osur was opening mobile neighborhood clinics, insisting many women were neglecting critical help.

“I think the need is there,” he said. “We’ve just got to find a way to reach them.”

(Reporting by Annika McGinnis; Editing by Caren Bohan and Doina Chiacu) Serving the Community since 1972

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NAHC Staff Speak-Up As a breastfeeding peer counselor I meet moms and moms-to-be who need extra care outside of my scope.

I feel a joy being able to direct them to the extra care they need, “not just sending them away�. And it builds a stronger relationship, it makes out members happy knowing they are cared for. In return I feel the same joy, I did my job.

Terri Brown Breastfeeding Peer Counselor

Learn how to manage

Chronic Pain

JOIN US on Tuesdays for group medical visits with a doctor for those affected by chronic pain

NAHC Staff Lounge 2950 International Blvd Oakland, CA

To sign up please call: (510) 535-4461 Must be an active Member of 7D to participate.

OUR MISSION Native American Health Center’s mission is to provide comprehensive services to improve the health and well-being of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and residents of the surrounding communities, with respect for cultural and linguistic differences.