Federal Grant Links Fort Peck Tribes to Health Services
The Billings Gazette reports that a $1.2 million federal grant will help the Fort Peck Tribes to set up telemedicine health services for more than 2,100 people, with the assistance of Billings Clinic and the Eastern Montana Telemedicine Network. The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration gave the four-year grant to the Fort Peck Tribes Health Promotion Disease Prevention Program.
It aims to connect students and their families, as well as health providers, at school-based health centers across the reservation with experts, specialists and other medical providers across the state who wouldn’t otherwise be available. Kenny Smoker Jr. is the director of the Fort Peck prevention program. He said the services are much needed on the Fort Peck Reservation and that people often have to commute to Billings or Great Falls for specialty care for conditions such as asthma or diabetes. The grant will link people with health providers.