Phillips County Hospital Making Plans

Dr. Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Julie Ruff of MSU-Bozeman, met with Jo Tharp, Phillips County Hospital and Health Clinic Administrator, Erica McKeon-Hanson (Community Research Associate with CAIHE) and ten community members to discuss matters as the Community Advisory Council (CAC) in the direction of the clinic and hospital. Both Johnson and Ruff are Assistant Professors at the Bozeman College. The clinic will be working closely with the MSU-B staff on a grant for assessing the local clinic and any needs.

As of last Sunday and Monday, a team under the direction of Dr. Bernadette McCroy, who is also with MSU-Bozeman spent time with staff members and doing observation. Her group of engineers spent the two days at the hospital and clinic checking out the air quality, ambient noise, lighting, infection prevention, navigation (finding your way around), supply management and information security, and essentially, "everything under the hood," in relationship to the daily operations of the facility.

Hanson is a former graduate of Malta High School now living in Havre. The grant funding for the year-long study is through the CAIRHE project (the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity).

Johnson shared that while doing the research and evaluations, they use special glasses to have a more complete and comprehensive grasp of matters. These glasses have 16 illuminators and four cameras to aid in their research.

"What they do is measure how much light bounces off your eye (cornea) while you are doing an activity, using the four cameras to capture where your eye moves based on that light. They also can capture emotions that are important to making sure we have a good experience during activities, like knowing if you're confident or stressed. We used them recently at Billings Clinic with their team."

These are not your average glasses and while the glasses are available online, they are "an investment" and more than likely only purchased for projects such as doing assessments and evaluations like MSU-Bozeman is conducting.

The goal of the team is to assess, through a year-long project, how to make the clinic and hospital profitable. The goal is to determine how to make the clinic/hospital a place where the providers and staff want to go to work and the community (patients) feel confident in the care provided.

Dr. Ruff said, "I love the hi-line communities," and that "where we live is vital." She works one week a month on the Ft. Peck Reservation, and posed the question...what do we envision for needed services?

The group that attended the meeting was part of the newly organized CAC that will work as a team to provide input, ideas and feedback on not only what the community needs, it will direct focus on how to meet those needs. Many various backgrounds were represented by those who came to the table to offer insight, support and guidance for the positive outcome and growth of the clinic and hospital.

No names will be used as far as those who were there to participate at this particular meeting, some of the information shared was of a private nature. What they did share was a common concern for our youth and the pressures that they are under at this time. One stated that the farming and ranching lifestyle has an elevated risk for depression, in part due to isolation. A general consensus was that few of those attending were aware of the effect of trauma, suicide ideation, and being a survivor of these life-altering events can cause PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and that needs to be dealt with as well.

Many stated the need for support groups for the youth and those older, as grief cannot be processed in a certain amount of time. Another big factor is resources, while yet another factor is the long-lingering effect of Covid. "No one wants to work" was shared by several, an ongoing concern for the basic survival of small communities, as businesses are forced to close their doors as a result of such of lack of employees and apathy.

One of the members of the CAC stated, "A lot of people want to help and they get in their lane and we need to get out of our lanes. We need the county health department, the schools, the superintendent...everyone wants to help but it's like a shotgun blast...it's going in everywhere...there is no pinpoint, I think we really have to pinpoint what we want to do. That we have all these organizations, it's incredible, but if they are just working within their organizations, and not collaborating with the other organizations and come up with a program."

Other individuals present expressed the need to collaborate efforts, stating aspects to consider include the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of people. It was shared that a community needs to invest in our youth. A working partnership, between the hospital, clinic and assisted living facility are needed to make the community whole.

There were comments regarding the access between the hospital and the River's Edge Assisted Living facility, which recently opened under new management where the Hi-Line Retirement Center was. "I saw a door, with the window all covered with paper, and the door was locked. I knew a cure for that...and tore down the paper and unlocked the door"...stating "There needs to be a relationship!"

One contributed their thoughts, "The challenges Malta is having is statewide. Young kids break up and think the world is not worth living in and think suicide is the answer...it's not. They need to find more reasons to live than not." Then added, "...we lose our youth, we lose; we have to invest in them or we lose our future."

It was stated that we have technology on our side, despite the barriers of isolation and distance that add hurdles for care. One major concern is where to send youth for in-patient treatment. Presently, Wyoming is the closest option, and that option is not always a viable one for some families.

Johnson said, "We are very excited with the fact that you have the partnership back (with the assisted living facility and clinic) and you touched on something big, that I always keep coming back to is, one of the biggest strengths in Montana everybody can work together, we just need to have that direction."

It was shared that you don't have to have a PhD to help the kids, you just have to care. Anyone can sit down and listen.

Ruff said, "Montana is a big small town! The research work I do on Ft. Peck Reservation is what you are talking about. I work in the schools with school kids starting at fourth grade because we know suicide ideation begins at fourth grade, with attempts beginning at age eight...not just there but everywhere. What we have done is have individuals in the school and community observe and see the cues...and I agree you don't have to have a degree, just an open heart and open mind. I work with the students to articulate their feelings, on paper...I work with six Reservations and have about 2,000 students. We use art as the medium, there are many strengths within communities; don't lose heart, none of us know the answers...but we can't do nothing."

First, one foot in front of the other...taking baby steps to secure answers.

As it was said..."This a great start!"