The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hosted a listening session on October 25th to discuss the development of a Notice of Funding Opportunity entitled, "Healthy People 2030 Leading Health Indicators Initiative." The Initiative is intended to identify innovative adaptations of evidence-informed practices that improve health outcomes among racial, ethnic, Tribal, and other communities. This listening session intended to solicit feedback from Tribal leaders on the development of their Notice of Funding Opportunity. HHS approached its objective by reviewing three questions with Tribal leaders:
The most cited health concerns from Tribal leaders included diabetes, hypertension, and access to housing. Tribal leaders also indicated that resources geared towards education and training on the social determinants of public health are needed to implement public health improvement models. As to the final question, Tribal leaders explained that there is a lack of accessible grants for wellness centers and that Tribes need to partner with local health districts to ensure AI/AN representation in statistics and data. HHS noted that there will likely be grant funding available to research innovative adaptations of evidence based practices to implement the LHI. HHS concluded the listening session by stating that they will review the comments made during the listening session and reminded Tribal leaders that comments are due on November 20.
National Indian Health Board