United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc (USET) Tribal Epidemiology Center Public Health Infrastructure (TECPHI) project will work , to support efforts to effectively identify and address underlying social determinants of health, reduce persistent health disparities, and improve the overall health and wellbeing of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations in the Indiana Health Service (IHS) Nashville Area. USET is applying for Component A.
Established in 1969, USET is a non-profit, inter-Tribal organization comprised of 33 federally recognized Tribal Nation members from the Northeastern Woodlands to the Everglades and across the Gulf of Mexico (See Appendix I). As part of this work, USET’s Tribal Health Program Support (THPS) office has been in operation since 1995, initiated through an Indian Self-Determination Education and Assistance Act (ISDEAA) contract with IHS for identified programs, services, functions, and activities on behalf of member Tribal Nations. The USET TEC, has served Tribal health programs and Urban Indian Organizations in the 13-state region known as the Indian Health Service (IHS) Nashville Area since 2000. It is the only TEC in the region and works in conjunction with these programs to provide an in-depth array of public health activities and epidemiological service. USET’s main office is in the Calumet Office Building located at 711 Stewarts Ferry Pike, Nashville, TN. The IHS Nashville Area Office is also housed in the Calumet Office Building, which facilitates the partnership between the two organizations.
USET’s TECPHI 2.0 project will strengthen s the public health infrastructure and capacity of our Tribal Epidemiology Center (TEC) and the Tribes and Urban Indian Organizations (UIO) they support to meet national public health accreditation standards and deliver the 10 Essential Public Health Services. Priorities are as follows:
1) Focus Area 1 Activities: Infrastructure building: Support USET TEC workforce development and capacity building by providing on-going training and technical assistance in essential public health services and core public health competencies;
2) Focus Area 2 Activities: Collect and use data to carry out assessments and identify local health priorities: Use data to identify and describe social determinants of health (SDoH) and identify health priorities, strengths, and disparities for USET Tribal Nation populations; and
3) Focus Area 3 Activities: Plan, implement, and evaluate interventions to address health priorities: Identify opportunities and cultivate partnerships to address the SDoH in USET Tribal Nation populations, supporting culturally relevant practiced-based activities to address identified health priorities.
Outcomes include increased use of culturally relevant data collection instruments, increased access to USET Tribal Nation data to identify SDoH and health priorities, increased collaboration among TECs, Tribal Nations, and UIOs on planning implementation, and evaluation of culturally relevant public health programs, increased use of national standards to assess public health infrastructure strengths and gaps, increased use of public health core competencies to access and guide training for TEC and Tribal Nation workforce. USET will also participate in the Community of Practice (CoP) facilitated by the Component B recipient, with TECPHI staff attending routine monthly virtual meetings with the Component B recipient to discuss project performance, ideas and engage in ongoing collaborative efforts. We will also create a sustainability plan to sustain increased workforce capacity and enhanced public health infrastructure beyond the 5-year period of performance.
