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Outreach Program with Native American Communities

Learn about the Mass General Brigham Outreach Program with Native American Communities, partnering with local tribal communities and agencies and the Indian Health Service (IHS) to improve health care access to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.

A Native American grandmother and granddaughter in front of a traditional house

Overview

The goal of the Mass General Brigham Outreach Program is to support health care access, equity, and availability to local and national American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Through commitment to provider specialty care training and education, community outreach, and working alongside community partners, Mass General Brigham Outreach Program focuses on understanding and addressing the unique health care challenges and needs of these AI/AN communities.

View our program brochure (triggers file download)

Outreach Program with Native American Communities

Through educational and clinical collaborations with Navajo Area Indian Health Service providers and local AI/AN community leaders, we are working alongside our partners to help address the unique health care challenges and barriers to care in indigenous communities.

11-year gap in life expectancy

American Indian/Alaska Native individuals have a life expectancy of 65.2 years compared to 76.4 years for the general U.S. population (2021).

Why Native American communities

Native American communities have substantial health disparities compared to the general U.S. population. Social determinants of health (SDOH) contribute significantly to these disparities. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the SDOH are the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies, racism, climate change, and political systems.

  • As of 2021, AI/ANs have a life expectancy of 65.2 years compared to 76.4 years for the U.S. population. At the end of 2019, the life expectancy rate for AI/ANs pre-COVID was 71.8 years compared to 78.8 years1
  • AI/ANs experience higher rates of death than all other Americans in chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries such as motor vehicle assault, assault/homicide, and intentional self-harm/suicide2
  • One in five AI/AN adults has diagnosed diabetes. This is more than double the prevalence for the general U.S. population with a fast growing mortality rate3
  • The AI/AN community had the highest drug overdose rates of any ethnicity in 2020 and 2021 with a 33% increase in one year1
  • Infant mortality rates were 1.75 times higher in 2020 than births from mothers who identify as white (7.68 deaths compared to 4.4 deaths per 1,000 live births)1
  • Suicide rates in 2020 were 1.7 times higher than the overall U.S. population with a 20% increase between 2015–2022 compared to a <1% increase with the rest of the nation1

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2 Indian Health Service
3 National Indian Council on Aging

Our mission

The Outreach Program is focused on partnering with and listening to tribal and Indian Health Service (IHS) providers and representatives, Native American urban community agencies and advocates with goals to build sustainable and relevant programs, enhance capacity, eliminate barriers to care, and positively impact the health and well-being of these diverse communities.

Learn more about our program
A doctor provides medical skills training to a health provider with a volunteer on a hospital bed
Access to specialty care services is particularly challenging in more rural parts of the country, often limiting the treatment options for patients in these areas. We are extremely proud of the work of our Mass General Brigham clinical community—physicians, nurses, and other staff working together through the Outreach Program to fill important gaps in care. This work is built on the premise of establishing long-lasting relationships that represent a sustainable approach to delivering advanced and high-quality care in these Native communities.

Tom Sequist, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer
Mass General Brigham

Learn more

Contact us to learn more about the Outreach Program with Native American Communities.

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