There is a new location for Native health in the Black Hills. The Great Plains Native Health Hub has opened in Rapid City with the support of Johns Hopkins University.
The hub will offer new Native-specific health care options as part of the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health, officials said.
Oglala Lakota doctor Donald Warne is the co-director of the Center for Indigenous Health.
“Unfortunately, we have some of the worst health disparities in the nation right here in the Dakotas, and when we look at the American Indian population, the average age of death is in the late 40s, as compared to the rest of the population in the late 70s," Warne said. "So, we have a 30-year difference in average age of death – and much of that is preventable. When we think about preventable issues, we’re dealing in the areas of public health and medicine.”
He said a safe, trusting environment for Native health care is step one.
“Our leadership team for the Great Plains Hub consists of all Lakota people," Warne said. "I think in research and health care and community engagement, the messengers really matter. What we’re excited about is we have new research projects studying Lakota populations, led by an entirely Lakota research team. We can’t think of research in this silo, we have to look at this as an opportunity to provide more opportunities to provide more training for community members that might be interested in health care careers.”
Warne’s colleague, research associate Dr. Courtney Claussen, said the hub will bring doctors from around the region to focus on specific local challenges.
“Being located here within Rapid City is beautiful," Claussen said. "There are a ton of incredible team members located across the nation, so having the interconnections – not only from nation to nation but to the communities in South Dakota – we were able to meet with a lot of really great folks from the great plains region working in the health care area.”
Another major draw of the hub – addressing brain drain by bringing PhD’s back to western South Dakota.