Health Aide Training Program

Rural villages find solutions from within its Alaska Native people for providing local health care.

By Honoring Nations

Honoring Nations 2018 Awardee

Health Aide Training ProgramsHonoring Nations

A need for better medical care

Currently, Alaska Natives have some of the highest per capita rates of oral disease, tobacco use, cancer, substance abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and suicide in the country. However,  cost and distance limit access to routine health care.

High rates of poverty and limited accessibility to 70% of the state's villages describe rural Alaska. Moreover, cultural misunderstandings can make it difficult for Western-trained providers to properly treat Native patients. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) recognized that the well-being and sustainability of their communities were compromised due to a lack of access to health care and has worked to develop education programs that address the unique needs of their people.

Health Aide Training ProgramHonoring Nations

Rural health care providers

Begun by the federal government in the 1960s, the Community Health Aide Training program has been expanded by Alaskan Native leaders to provide training to rural community health practitioners on more medical needs.

Tribal villages or regional tribal health organizations select local residents as health aides. Trainees attend sessions consisting of several weeks of standardized instruction. In 2004, ANTHC introduced a program designed to address the lack of oral care in the villages. In 2009, alongside other tribal health organizations, the Consortium launched a certified Behavioral Health Aide educational program to provide counseling services in rural communities.

Health Aide Training ProgramHonoring Nations

Seventy-five remote villages now utilize dental health aides, giving more than 40,000 Alaska Native people access to regular dental care. In its first decade, the Behavioral Health Aide program graduated more than 100 individuals who currently serve as counselors and health educators within the Alaska health care system.

Health Aide Training ProgramsHonoring Nations

High-quality village health care

Health aide education prepares local community members to offer a wide range of services that otherwise would be unavailable.  Moreover, health aides develop an ongoing relationship with their patients, unlike outside specialists who see patients for limited time periods.

The specific role of a health aide in each village varies according to patient needs, the aide’s skills, other resources available in the community, and local customs. Health aides communicate in ways that patients understand and use culturally appropriate approaches, often integrating care plans with traditional healing methods. As an example, some Behavioral Health Aides have prescribed berry picking and beach combing as mindfulness therapy.

Health Aide Training ProgramsHonoring Nations

Tackling new problems

The arrival and spread of COVID-19 exasperated issues of communication between the three health aid programs. Based on this feedback, ANTHC established a goal of developing a new Interprofessional Education department and completed construction of a new building in 2020.  

This new facility allowed the three health aide training programs to co-locate, educate students in the same building, use shared resources, and build towards common points of collaboration. All three health aide training programs joined together in 2021 to co-host the first Integrated Care Forum that provided training and education on important topics related to all three disciplines.

Health Aide Training ProgramsHonoring Nations

Bringing the lessons home

With their skill-based education, patient relationships, and local knowledge, health aides provide the care that helps keep Alaska Native people healthy in their home villages.

Health Aide Training ProgramsHonoring Nations

Lesson 1

Health aide training programs are a direct investment in local human capital—which when put to work, can increase the financial capital available in local communities.

Health Aide Training ProgramsHonoring Nations

Lesson 2

Health aides play a crucial role as health care providers, ambassadors, and translators because they understand Western medicine, traditional practices, and community needs.

Health Aide Training ProgramsHonoring Nations

Lesson 3

Telemedicine is an invaluable component of all three health aide training programs and doctor-aide-patient collaborations, because it reduces costs and increases access to education and medical care.

Credits: Story

HONORING NATIONS: 2018 Awardee
Health Aide Training Programs
Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

This exhibit was curated by the Project on Indigenous Governance and Development, Honoring Nations national awards program. All images were obtained with the permission of the host nation, and gathered during the site visit of the awarding year.

Honoring Nations 2018 Awards Report:
https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/hpaied/files/health_aide_training_programs.pdf?m=1639579049

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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