On May 10, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved, by voice vote, a bill (S. 1200) to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (P.L. 94-437).
Sponsored by Chair Byron Dorgan (D-ND), the Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007 would reauthorize programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service (IHS) through FY2017. The measure would include a number of provisions specific to women’s health, including funding “to improve and enhance the treatment models of care for Indian women.”
S. 1200 would authorize grants to tribes and urban Indian organizations “to develop and implement a comprehensive behavioral health program of prevention, intervention, treatment, and relapse-prevention services that specifically address the cultural, historical, social, and child care needs of Indian women, regardless of age.” The grants could be used for community training, education, and psychological counseling to prevent and treat substance abuse among Indian women. A fetal alcohol disorder program also would be established to educate tribal members, and to develop prevention and treatment models.
The measure 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 the prevention of tobacco, alcohol, drug, and inhalant abuse, and preventing and treating mental disorders. An Indian youth telemental health demonstration project also would be established. For adults, including those aged 55 and older, these services would include the promotion of gender-specific healthy approaches related to domestic violence, sexual assault, and neglect.
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.”
