Native Public Health Resilience

The purpose of this program is to enhance Tribes’, Tribal organizations’, and Urban Indian Organizations’ capacity to implement core Public Health functions, services, and activities, and to further develop and improve their Public Health management capabilities.

As part of the IHS mission to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level, this program seeks to build on and strengthen community resilience by supporting wider access to the 10 Essential Public Health Services (EPHS) in Indian Country, a framework designed to offer all people a fair and just opportunity to achieve optimal health and well-being. For more information on the EPHS, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/publichealthservices/essentialh…. The framework of the EPHS has served as a guide to the public health field since 1994 and describes the public health activities that all communities should undertake, including, 1) monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems, and 2) Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.

The EPHS framework was revised in 2020 with an emphasis on equity and reflects current and future priorities for public health practice. The EPHS have been included in the HHS Healthy People initiatives since 2010, when the initiative first included a focus area of Public Health Infrastructure with the goal to “ensure that Federal, Tribal, State, and local health agencies have the infrastructure to provide essential public health services effectively.”