New Stuyahok sits on the quiet, rolling hills above the Nushagak River in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska. Like many rural areas in the state, New Stuyahok residents rely on skiffs, snowmachines and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) for their subsistence hunts and day-to-day travel within the community. There are trucks in New Stuyahok, but they are about as rare as tall trees on the tundra. As the hunting seasons change, so too do the ways residents reach these lands. ...

While many of the leading health indicators (LHI) in the Healthy Alaskans 2020 have made progress, the following four made significant improvement for both population groupings of All Alaskans and Alaska Native peoples. These improvements come from the hard work of various health and wellness partners across the state who implemented evidence based strategies for each issue. The recommended strategies were created using teams of experts and County Health Rankings to ensure they are the best practices for Alaska specifically ...

The town of Newtok, Alaska, named for the vast delta grasses and the sound they make in wind, clearly hears another sound: the river. Newtok, Yup’ik for “rustling of the grass,” is located within the 19 million-acre Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, a spongy lowland dotted with rivers, sloughs, streams and lakes. Water is everywhere. When it was established in the 1940s, Newtok was well inland, located near a sweeping bend of the Ninglick River. However, over the last 40 ...

After a successful first year as a direct host site for AmeriCorps VISTA members, ANTHC is again hosting VISTAs who will support our vision that Alaska Native people are the healthiest people in the world. AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) members devote a year of their time to tackling pressing issues in rural communities impacted by poverty. This year, ANTHC hosts seven members who will work on projects spanning the state. They will work with a variety of ...

ANMC’s nurses provide culturally appropriate, family-centered care in a unique hospital environment, and they are constantly seeking ways to improve the services and care we provide. In an effort to further recognize our nurses for their outstanding work, ANMC partnered with the DAISY Award, an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care given by nurses every day. Congratulations to DAISY Award honoree, Barbara Christensen, an RN on ANMC’s Critical Care Unit, who was recognized ...

In 2017, there were 102 overdose deaths involving opioids throughout the state of Alaska—a rate of 13.9 per 100,000 persons. Prescription opioids (such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and morphine) are prescribed by doctors to treat moderate to severe pain. However, they have serious risks and side effects, including dependency, addiction, overdose and accidental poisoning. In order to assist in the prevention of substance misuse and accidental poisoning, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium now provides free medicine disposal products through the iknowmine ...