Tuesday, February 4, 2025
2/4/2025
The Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) grant allows the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) Diabetes program to provide many services throughout the Alaska Tribal Health System (ATHS). Grant activities and services are aimed at reducing the risk of diabetes in at-risk individuals, providing high-quality care to those with diagnosed diabetes, and reducing the complications of diabetes. As such, the ANTHC Diabetes program focuses on several key areas: direct patient care, community outreach, diabetes prevention, maintenance of a population-based registry for diabetes, and support to our regional tribal health organization (THO) partners. The clinical team serves as the diabetes referral center for ATHS. The emphasis is on a multidisciplinary approach to care and ensuring that patients are meeting the standards of care for diabetes recommended by the Indian Health Service and the American Diabetes Association. The clinical team travels to at least eight ATHS facilities across the state for yearly diabetes specialty clinics. One to two medical providers; a registered dietitian and/or pharmacist who are both Certified Diabetes Educators, along with a physical therapist who has extensive experience in foot care travel as a team to remote Alaska regions. Our goal is to provide up-to-date diabetes care to patients and to support and partner with regional THO providers. The backbone of the community outreach and diabetes prevention activities for the ANTHC Diabetes program includes the advanced diabetes training courses for community health aides and our partnership with Camp Fire Alaska. Community health aides/practitioners; our first-level providers in over 200 Alaska communities who have participated in this rigorous but fun course have lost weight, stopped drinking soda, quit tobacco, and have become staunch advocates for healthy living, diabetes prevention, and care at the village level. ANTHC’s partnership with Camp Fire Alaska delivers a wellness curriculum to 5-12 years olds in rural Alaska in a summer camp environment. Most recently, over 20 rural villages participated, reaching over 2000 youth. The ANTHC diabetes registry and surveillance team works with all the regions in Alaska to support and maintain the local and the ATHS-wide tribal diabetes registry. The registry team partners with the data and analytics staff to keep the registry updated throughout the year and accessible to THOs via an SDPI data dashboard. This data is used to create call lists, case-manage patients with diagnosed diabetes and pre-diabetes, and note trends in standards of care. The ANTHC diabetes registry is also used to report the prevalence and rates of complications related to diabetes, including amputation and end-stage renal disease. In a state as large and geographically isolated as Alaska, maintaining a strong network of resources is essential. ANTHC Diabetes program hosts meetings every other month with all the SDPI coordinators around the state, facilitating timely communication between the ANTHC diabetes program and the ATHS grantees. Grant applications and reporting deadlines, updates on staffing as well as current activities, and successes/challenges with clinical and community activities are some of the main topics discussed at these times. Once or twice a year, the diabetes coordinators come to Anchorage for a face-to-face meeting offered along with CME training on new or interesting topics or updates concerning care for diabetes patients. To further support our ATHS partners, the ANTHC Diabetes program provides continuing education on topics related to diabetes at each field clinic. Additionally, the annual diabetes conference hosted by the ANTHC Diabetes Program provides 15-16 credits of continuing education for RNs, RDs, pharmacists, and providers. It is also the forum for exchanging ideas among the various SDPI grantees in the Alaska area.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).