SEARHC consolidates offices to SNO building

Wrangellites hoping to take advantage of the Southeast Regional Health Consortium’s services will no longer have to make two separate trips.

SEARHC’s prevention and referral offices have been combined into a single office located in the Stikine Native Organizations building along Front Street. The SEARHC Traditional Foods Program and Referral Care had been located in separate office spaces.

Officials with the Consortium celebrated the consolidation with an open house at the new offices March 4. The event drew about 30 people, officials said.

Locals may be more familiar with the high-profile traditional foods program, which typically holds quarterly events aimed at drawing attention to soapberries, moose, deer, goat, seaweed, and other traditional foods. The traditional foods program aims not only to raise awareness of Native culture and traditional nutrition, but also to make people aware of the connection between health and diet, said Martha Pearson, the consortium’s health promotion manager.

However, for enrollees dependent on SEARHC for health care, the Consortium’s referral service may be more important to maintaining a standard of living. The referral service arranges for SEARHC enrollees to receive timely health care, said John Schenk, Referral Care Coordinator for SEARHC.

“We like to have them (patients) seen in a timely manner,” he said. “The State of Alaska is kind of unique in that regard as far as travel is concerned. If you’re down in the lower 48, you could simply drive to the doctor’s office, or drive to a specialist. Here, you have to take a plane or a boat.”

“They have to be seen at a facility first, and then once they’re seen at the facility, they’ll get a referral,” he added. “I’ll take that referral and make the lodging arrangements and travel arrangements for that patient.”

Travel in this regard can sometimes take Wrangell patients as far a-field as Anchorage, Schenk said.

The federal Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1974 allows the federal Indian Health Services program to contract federally recognized tribes to provide services. SEARHC, established in 1975 and headquartered in Sitka, is a partnership of 18 Native communities in Southeast, and operates the former Indian Health Services clinic in Juneau as well as the Mt. Edgecumbe Hospital in Sitka.