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Urban Indian Health treats all races
http://www.rapidcityjournal
Oct 5, 2002
By Scott Waltman, Aberdeen American News
ABERDEEN (AP) -- Occasionally, a group's name doesn't fully describe its
mission.
You can make that case for South Dakota Urban Indian Health. For starters, it
would be hard to classify South Dakota as urban regardless of the criteria
used. Beyond that, the organization's three South Dakota clinics see
non-Indians as well.
Urban Indian Health is, to a large degree, an unknown health-care provider.
South Dakotans generally know their personal physicians, they know where the
local hospital is and, if they qualify, they know how to get to the nearest
Veterans Affairs clinic. Considerably fewer know about Urban Indian Health.
Clinics are in Aberdeen, Pierre and Sioux Falls.
Urban Indian Health is a private, nonprofit group. Its name results from the
fact that it receives funding from the Indian Health Service and focuses on
caring for American Indians. But others can make appointments as well.
Much like the VA clinic in Aberdeen, Urban Indian Health is a primary-care
center. Two nurse practitioners see patients for physicals, the flu, to renew
prescriptions and for countless other reasons. They do not, however, do
surgery, and they don't do obstetrics.
"We refer out to the community for anything that is needed that we don't
provide at our clinic," Val Jones, an Urban Indian Health nurse practitioner
in Aberdeen, said.
"We see anybody at the clinic," Donna Keeler, executive director of South
Dakota Urban Indian Health, headquartered in Pierre, said. "We are an IHS
agency, and we're not a free clinic."
In other words, people have to pay for medical services they receive,
although the clinic does see Medicaid patients and works with private
insurance companies. It sees plenty of uninsured patients as well.
"That's becoming more and more of a problem every day," Jones said of people
without health insurance.
So is diabetes — an issue Urban Indian Health spent a considerable amount of
time addressing last week.
Diabetes is the result of high blood-sugar levels. It is especially prominent
in Indians.
Last week, the Aberdeen clinic was closed as staffers conducted diabetes
screening at the Federal Building. The effort was part of Gov. Bill Janklow's
statewide diabetes- screening program. The state provided much of the
equipment, Urban Indian Health provided the time and Presentation College
provided nursing students to help out.
About 150 people were tested for diabetes — most of them Indians employed at
the Federal Building.
"Diabetes is definitely a big concern of ours because Native Americans are
definitely more (susceptible) to diabetes just because of their heritage,"
Jones said.
The diabetes situation in the Indian population is critical, Keeler said.
But the rest of the population needs to keep an eye on blood-sugar levels as
well, especially because Type II diabetes can, to a large degree, be
controlled with proper diet and exercise. Its onset often is the result of an
unhealthful lifestyle.
Obesity and the use of alcohol are major factors in Type II diabetes, Jones
and Keeler said.
Type I diabetes is the result of a pancreas that doesn't produce any or
enough insulin. It is controlled by medication. Gestational diabetes is found
in pregnant women. Type II, however, is the most common. It affects all
segments of the population.
"When you say diabetes, you think of your grandmother," Keeler said.
"Absolutely not. Absolutely not."
Jones said more and more health-care professionals are looking out for what's
called pre-diabetes. Borderline blood- sugar numbers can indicate the onset
of Type II diabetes and give people a heads up that they need to change their
lifestyle.
"You could see yourself controlling your own disease, " Keeler said.
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