Tribal Health Department February Council Report
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Program Name: Tribal Health Department – Leah Fyten, Health Director
Function/Mission Statement:
To enhance and develop health management capacity and infrastructure systems by establishing mid-level management.
Meetings/Conference calls:
1. Attended SWO Covid Isolation building meetings (3). The team is working on a budget and did
a walk through of items still need to open. The team has set a tentative date of opening for April
1, 2021. The team is looking for resources from other programs to supplement the budget.
2. Attended the Ribbon cutting ceremony for the SWO Covid Isolation Building on February 23,
2021.
3. The SWO Stakeholders Work group meet every Monday morning picked up again on February
22, 2021. The purpose of the Work group is to start the next SWO Five Year Health Plan. The
Stakeholder's will work on 3 to 5 initiatives rather than 15 from the last health plan (2016-2020)
4. The Health Director attends the WWKMHC Monday calls with Randy Jordan, CEO, Tribal
Leaders, and community leaders.
5. Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center COVID19 call. These calls are scheduled every
Wednesday at 11:00 am. These meetings seem to be the most valuable for Tribes.
6. Monthly SAMHSA TREE GPO call was cancelled by the GPO for the month of February and
Monthly SAMHSA Native Connections GPO call.
7. Bi-weekly Friday morning meetings with ILAUNCH Project Director and ILAUNCH
Consultant.
8. Budget meeting with Sara DeCoteau to make budget modifications to ASU Feasibility Study
budget to meet the proposal amount for the study. The Tribal Health Director had 3 meetings
with Mark Van Norman and Dan Davis, Great Plains Region Indian Health Service requesting an
additional $50,000 for the study. Indian Health Service did not approve the request.
9. Meeting with Tribal Executives and CFO to discuss Tribal Health Director salary moving into
Indirect Cost Budget for FY 22.
Successes:
1. Submitted Native Connection Grant Application on February 8, 2021.
2. Appointed Dr. Norm Johnson as Acting TREE Director on February 15, 2021 until a permanent
director is hired.
3. Attended BHIT Team meeting February 25, 2021. Discussion was to continue to amend the
Collaborative Agreement with all of the agencies through a Subgroup. Another subgroup was
established to begin Crisis Response protocols for youth and to better case manage youth in need
of services with the schools. Tribal Health Director will lead this group for the first couple of
meetings.
4. Met with Youth Center staff to discuss applying for an OVC Tribal Set-aside grant. Grant
certification was presented to Tribal Council on February 24, 2021 for approval to move forward.
The purpose of the grant will be hire and Youth Advocate and Family Advocate.
Challenges:
1. Programs need a virtual platform/program for communication. The cases continue to rise even
with the vaccine and staff need to continue to be diligent about social distancing. Microsoft
Teams is not user friendly. It would be ideal to have business Zoom which is HIPAA compliant
2. Getting positions filled.
3. Project Development Team was not able to use a grant writer for the Native Connections Grant
Application. Tribal Health Director and Dr. Norm Johnson were able to the grant application
submitted by the deadline with no errors.
4. Need grant writer for upcoming Notice of Funding Opportunities (MPSI and DVP). Sara
DeCoteau has the budget modifications ready for approval.
5. Lost many emails and calendar meetings in outlook during the month of February. This caused
difficulty in preparing reports.
March Activities:
1. Work with Covid Task Force on Operations and Maintenance of new Covid facility. Present
final budget for Tribal Council approval.
2. Begin the contracting process for DSGW and the feasibility study.
3. Prepare all budget carry over modifications
4. Issue RFP for clinical supervision at Native Connections Project.
5. Continue to meet with BHIT on developing Crisis Response Protocols and case management.
6. Continue to work on SWO Behavioral Health Policies and discuss renaming the department.
7. Meet with Indian Health Service on telehealth for SWO Covid facility
