Policies & Procedures

Purpose

To provide guidance on the inclusion and support of traditional Tribal health principals and practices within the Karuk Tribal Health System, membership and communities within the service area.

Policy

The policy of the Karuk Tribal Health & Human Services Program (KTHHSP) during the course of administering health services and supporting the communities served is to protect and to preserve the inherent right of all American Indians to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religion.

The KTHHSP continues to recognize the value and efficacy of traditional beliefs, ceremonies, and practices of the healing of the body, mind and spirit.  Faith is most often an integral part of the healing process and provides support for purposeful living.  It is therefore, the policy of the KTHHSP to encourage a climate or respect, acceptance and active support for traditional beliefs and practices.

Procedure

1. The KTHHSP staff has been instructed to inform patients they have the freedom to practice traditional religion when desired by the individual, member of the family (in case of a minor) or when the patient’s condition is such they cannot make a request.
2. When a KTHHSP patient (guardian/family members) request assistance in obtaining the service of a native healer every effort will be made to comply.  Such efforts might include contacting a traditional “doctor,” providing the space or privacy within the facility for ceremony, and/or the authorization to utilize health program funds to offset the expenses associated with a traditional healer.
3. Since a person’s religious and native beliefs are often very personal, the patient’s right to privacy must be respected in these matters.  No KTHHSP employee should be guilty of uninvited probing or interference in a patient’s private beliefs.  Many Indian patients prefer to say nothing about their beliefs and practices.  This is a right that must be respected.
4. The KTHHSP specifically recognizes that “health” from a traditional perspective has several layers and components, including the health of the community, the family, and the individual.  The various Karuk ceremonies are integral and inseparable from this “health” of the local community and family, and ultimately the individual.  Therefore, it shall be the practice of the KTHHSP to support these local ceremonies including but not limited to the Jump Dance, Pick-ya-wish, Brush Dance and other ceremonies related to world renewal, balance, and individual health.
5. Within this policy, KTHP staff must continue to be aware of, sensitive to, and respectful of traditional beliefs and practices of the American Indian it serves.  Procedures that would tend to interfere with, dilute, or modify these beliefs and practices must be avoided.  Carefulness must be exercised so that KTHHSP support in whatever form it takes, does not become a wedge, which creates dependence or wrests control from the recognized and honored healers, dance leaders, and other traditional practitioners.  The goal is that there be respect and a complimentary interface between the modern and traditional systems of medicine and religion.  Care must be taken that the KTHHSP support does not become a means of destroying or altering a system of healing that has a long history and contemporary relevance.