Project Title: Special Diabetes Program for Indians
Applicant Organization: Southcentral Foundation Address: 4501 Diplomacy Drive, Anchorage, Alaska 99508
Project Director: Velda Miller
Contact Phone Nos. (voice/fax): (907) 729-8891
Email address: VMiller@southcentralfoundation.com
Web site address: http://www.southcentralfoundation.com/ Amount of request: $1,878,744
Southcentral Foundation (SCF) was established in 1982 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit health care organization operating under the Tribal authority of Cook Inlet Region, Inc. SCF’s purpose is to improve the health and well-being of Alaska Native and American Indian people by developing and implementing comprehensive health related services that meet changing needs, enhance culture, and empower individuals and families to take charge of their lives. A full array medical and behavioral health services are provided to approximately 65,000 Alaska Natives and American Indian people living in the Municipality of Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and the surrounding villages and residents of 60 rural villages in south central Alaska. SCF’s service area extends 107,400 square miles – from the Aleutian Chain and Pribilof Islands on the west coast all the way east to the Canadian border. SCF’s mission is working together with the Native Community to achieve wellness through health and related services; its vision is a Native Community that enjoys physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness.
This request is for $1,878,744 that addresses diabetes which is a difficult condition to treat because it is closely tied to a person’s lifestyle and often requires the individual to make significant changes in their and their family’s daily lives. Education, management, and treatment require teamwork between the customer-owners and their primary care providers, case managers, educators, dietitians, and pharmacists. Ensuring close coordination and communication among all these individuals can be challenging, even in the coordinated care model of SCF.
SCF’s program will work with its primary care clinics to address these issues:
Improvement of SDPI Elements
o Nutritional education by Registered Dieticians (RDs) will be improved by the addition of a new RD for the Valley Native Primary Care Center.
o Improve other diabetes education by increasing the streamline referrals from primary care providers and RDs to other behavioral lifestyle change programs that are offered by Health Educators, Clinical Exercise Physiologists, and Certified Diabetes Educators.
o Improve A1C 7.0-7.9 rates by having customers track outcomes for their overall health and enhance programs that are served under as other diabetes education.
April Kyle, President/CEO of Southcentral Foundation, fully supports the efforts of the SDPI program and its implementation at SCF. The leadership of SCF continues to make diabetes prevention, care, and management a long-term strategic goal. One of the core objectives, by the Board of Directors, in partnership with SCF President/CEO and Vice President Leadership Team, determined that organization should continue to develop and support services to “Reduce the rate of and improve the management of diabetes," which has been a Family Wellness Corporate Initiative since 2009.