On October 27, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved, by voice vote, a bill (S. 1057) to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (P.L. 94-437). The committee held a hearing on the measure on July 14 (see The Source, 7/15/05).
Sponsored by Chair John McCain (R-AZ), the Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2005 would reauthorize programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service (IHS) through FY2015. The measure would include a number of provisions specific to women’s health, including funding “to monitor and improve the quality of health care for Indian women of all ages.”
S. 1057 would authorize the development of a comprehensive behavioral health prevention and treatment program to encourage collaboration among alcohol and substance abuse, social services, and mental health programs. For children under the age of 17, behavioral health services would include the promotion of healthy choices with a focus on sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence, sexual abuse, teen pregnancy, and obesity. For adults, these services would include the promotion of gender-specific healthy approaches related to parenting, domestic violence, and other abuse issues.
The measure would authorize a comprehensive substance abuse program with a focus on “prevention, intervention, treatment, and relapse prevention services that specifically address the spiritual, cultural, historical, social, and child care needs of Indian women.” S. 1057 also would authorize the establishment of a fetal alcohol disorder program “to identify and provide behavioral health treatment to high-risk Indian women and high-risk women pregnant with an Indian’s child.”
Under the bill, grants would be authorized for the prevention and treatment of child abuse. Grantees would be encouraged to develop prevention, training, and education programs for urban Indians, and would provide outpatient treatment services to victims of child sexual abuse and perpetrators of the abuse who are Indian or members of an Indian household.
Finally, the measure would authorize funding for mammography screening “for Indian women at a frequency appropriate to such women under national standards.”
During consideration of the bill, the committee approved, by voice vote, an amendment offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) that would authorize $1.5 million through FY2009 for a demonstration project on the use of telemental health services in youth suicide prevention and treatment. The amendment also would provide grants for Indian psychology career recruitment programs and make research into the causes of Indian youth suicide a priority for the IHS.
The committee also approved, by voice vote, an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would establish a program within the IHS to study and promote Indian men’s health.
