By Santee Ross, University of Montana

Medical care is something of a joke in Indian Country.

If you need medical assistance from Indian Health Services you can expect to wait hours and hours only to be given some aspirin for the pain, and antibiotics so you don’t die of infection.
This is why I always laugh when my mom tells me to go to the clinic when we have Tylenol in the bathroom.

I’m young enough that I don’t have to visit the doctor's office often to worry about this problem. However, I imagine elders have to worry about this issue on a daily basis. They have prescriptions they need filled almost weekly and they also have to stay on top of regular doctor checkups, because even the sniffles could cause some serious problems if left alone.

Margaret P. Moss, Ph.D., JD, RN, FAAN, who recently visited the University of Montana as part of a lecture series by the pharmacy school and Native American studies program, sees where the provided medical care through IHS could use improvement for elders.

Now I’m not an entirely savvy person in the medical field but I know when someone has that many letters following their name, they know what they’re talking about.
Moss is not only a woman with many letters behind her name, she is also the first and only Native American to hold a nursing and juris doctorate. She is affiliated with three tribes in North Dakota.

In other words she’s a Native woman who could school you in medical and legal terms. I have a hunch she would make an excellent trivial pursuit partner.

In her presentation she talked about the models currently in place that provide care for elders and whether these models are working.

The question she posed was if the models are enough to meet the cultural and geographic needs of the elders?

I was surprised no one thought of this question earlier. I mean admittedly I don’t really worry about elders. Not in a I-don’t-care kind of way but I always assume the elders are healthy and taken care of because I know that’s just what we think in our Lakota culture.

When my elders say “jump” I say, “how high?”

I never thought about those elders who don’t really have children or grandchildren to rely on for help. Those elders who don’t have reliable transportation to the clinic or those who are more traditional and non-Native doctors who aren’t culturally sensitive to that.

Out of the 1.4 million who are treated at IHS clinics about 12 percent of those are seniors, according to the IHS website.

This means there are about 120,000 seniors whose medical needs are being met at a minimal level.

There has been a recent movement to change that at IHS. A recent program has been set up to address some of the issues facing elders. An Elder Care Initiative Long-Term Care Grant Program was set up in 2010. Eight out of the 10 tribes that were awarded this grant have already implemented the program.

That’s impressive but as Moss’ question suggests, are there areas that can be improved?

Guess this means next time my unci (Lakota for grandma) says jump I’ll say, “How high? Oh and do you feel you’re given good medical service at IHS?”

Santee Ross (Hopi/Lakota) is from Lander, Wyo.