Title
A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CHEROKEE NATION TO PARTICIPATE IN A NATIONWIDE ELDER NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Body
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation since time immemorial has exercised the sovereign rights of self-government in behalf of the Cherokee people; and
WHEREAS, the Cherokee Nation is a federally recognized Indian Nation with a historic and continual government to government relationship with the United States of America; and
WHEREAS, long-term care, a category that includes health promotion, home health services, personal care, housekeeping assistance, home delivered meals, skilled nursing care, assisted living, and other in-home services, is an emerging unmet need in Indian Country; and
WHEREAS, three National Resource Centers (North Dakota, Alaska and Hawaii) have been awarded grants through the Administration on Aging (AoA), Department of Health & Human Services, to collaborate and provide technical assistance on the health and social needs of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian elderly and assist these groups in conducting a needs assessment which is a requirement for their AoA grant; and
WHEREAS, the needs assessment is designed to yield information on the following Native elder health care needs:
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- General Health Status
- Activities of Daily Living
- Visual, Hearing, and Dental
- Tobacco and Alcohol Use
- Nutrition, Exercise, and Excess Weight
- Social Support, Housing, and Work
- WHEREAS, in addition to providing technical assistance, the three National Resource Centers on Native Aging are required, by the Older Americans Act, to perform research and disseminate the results of the research; and
- WHEREAS, the three National Resource Centers on Native Aging are asking Tribes throughout the nation to volunteer to participate in a partnership arrangement, to identify the needs of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian elders nationwide, in which the resource centers and the Tribe/consortium will each assume responsibilities:
- What the Resource Center will provide:
- Needs assessment instruments
- Assistance in sampling
- Training of interviewers
- Consultation with interviewers via email or telephone
- Data entry and analysis
- Data storage
- Production of tables and comparisons with national statistics
- What each Tribe/consortium will provide:
- A Tribal Resolution documenting participation in the Native elder social and health needs assessment as applicable
- A list of elders to interview
- Interviewers or volunteers to conduct the survey
- Interpretation of the results with local input
- Development of recommendations for actions
- Dissemination of the results to tribal leaders and health officials; and
WHEREAS, summary information from your needs assessment, along with a national comparison report from all the needs assessments, will be returned to the governing council and to the local contact person; and
WHEREAS, the confidentiality of enrolled members and Tribal/consortium information is of the utmost importance; therefore, the information in this needs assessment will be collected anonymously by tribal members with the information stored at the University or North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences within a locked file cabinet and destroyed after a period of three years.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CHEROKEE NATION, that the Tribal Council hereby authorizes participation in the Identifying Our Needs: A Survey of Elders III; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE CHEROKEE NATION, that the Tribal Council grants permission to the North Dakota, Alaska, and Hawaii National Resource Centers on Native Aging to use all collected needs assessment information in aggregate format for the purpose of disseminating state, regional, and national results from analyses of the data; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED BY THE CHEROKEE NATION, that specific information collected within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation belongs to the Cherokee Nation and may not be released in any form to individuals, agencies, or organizations without tribal authorization.