Urban Indian Health Institute

A fair-minded society has an obligation to protect its members, but when it comes to American Indian and Alaskan Native women, we’re failing in meeting those obligations. A new report by Amnesty International finds that women in those groups are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women belonging to other ethnic groups.

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On April 27, 2007, the Urban Indian Health Institute’s Advisory Council convened for their annual meeting. The Advisory Council discussed infrastructure, the projects, and future directions. The thirteen member Council has two new members: Susan Barkan, an epidemiologist with Public Health Seattle and King County as well as Tim Feetham, a data analysis consultant who has served as a Senior Research Analyst for the Data Warehousing Institute and continues to write for them on a regular basis.

The Advisory Council meeting focused on three issues regarding the Urban Indian Health Institute’s future: the direction of research, place within the urban American Indian/Alaska Native health network, and the importance of creating quality partnerships. Foremost on the agenda, was a discussion that the UIHI is not primarily a research organization. Included in this was the decision that the Urban Indian Health Institute ought to pursue work on a standardized data system for urban Indian health organizations as well as pursue concrete partnerships on a larger scale.            

Advisory Council members were enthusiastic about the spread of “preventative” health messages to partners and collaborators. They called for increased awareness of preventative health messages both internally and externally. Finally, the Advisory Council urged staff to expand their current project prioritization, supplementing macro-decisions with protocols on a micro-decision level. As with past years, the Council urged the UIHI to focus on a chosen agenda and pursue work within that area.

Between 400 and 500 people are expected to attend an evening celebration that will launch the University of Washington’s new Indigenous Wellness Research Institute on April 12 in Kane Hall on the Seattle UW campus.
The research institute, which was established to help American Indians and other indigenous people achieve health and wellness, will be headquartered in the School of Social Work, but will draw on faculty expertise from across campus. Researchers from School of Medicine, School of Nursing, the psychology, American Indian studies and women studies departments, and social work are participating, under the leadership of Karina Walters, an associate professor of social work.

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