This episode discusses CPN Health Service’s new telehealth platform for all Tribal members in the U.S., makes a visit to a recent opioid overdose awareness event held by CPN Behavioral Health and talks with District 7 Legislator Mark Johnson about his reelection in June.
Telemedicine now available for Tribal members across the United States
Citizen Potawatomi Nation Vice-Chairman Linda Capps wanted to offer health services to Tribal members anywhere in the United States, and that need significantly increased during the coronavirus pandemic. She and a team of CPN staff worked with Call A Doctor Plus to develop and implement CPN Care, the Tribe’s new telehealth service.
CPN Care became available January 1 of this year and offers phone and videocall appointments on the spot to those with an account. It also provides access to some counseling and mental health services via phone and video as well as a platform for reduced medication and prescription costs, both of which Call A Doc CEO Lou Daniels believes are particularly important.
“Over time, benefits have become more expensive and the cost for families to be able to provide these benefits, and Ms. Capps saw virtual care as a way to do this in a very cost-effective way, to deliver a program with really zero cost to the members. They can use it as often as they’d like.”
CPNHS and Call A Doctor Plus encourage CPN members to sign up as soon as possible. It takes up to 48 hours to process a new account request. Find more information about CPN Care as well as instructions on how to apply at cpn.news/CPNCare.
Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services educates public on overdose crisis
In the United States, synthetic opioids have become a token of drug overdoses. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overdose deaths that included synthetic opioids, such as illegally manufactured fentanyl, rose more than 55 percent between January 31, 2020, and 2021. Many are accidental, and the problem has grown from one of addiction and recovery to one of public safety.
Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services hosted a community overdose awareness event in May 2022 at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center. It sought to increase the public’s understanding of the recent uptick in fentanyl overdoses, sometimes referred to as “the silent crisis.” CPNHS Behavioral Health Psychologist Dr. Julio Rojas helped organize the event. In his experience, this type of substance abuse affects every socioeconomic background.
“It’s just human nature to hear about something like this and think, ‘Well, we don’t have this problem here. We don’t deal with this here,’” he said. “And that lack of information is just not the right attitude to have when there are dangerous drugs in our community. Now, we might say, ‘There have always been dangerous drugs in our community.’ True. But these are ‘one pill can kill’ kinds of substances.”
View the full panel discussion from the opioid overdose awareness event at cpn.news/fentanylpanel. Find out more about Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services at cpn.news/health. Visit CPN Behavioral Health at cpn.news/bh.
Meet District 7 Legislator Mark Johnson
During the Tribe’s 2022 election, District 7 chose to reelect Vieux and Johnson family descendant Mark Johnson to the Citizen Potawatomi Nation legislature. This will be his fourth term representing the Tribal members residing in northern California, northern Nevada and northern Utah.
While he was born in California, his father Richard, was born in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and the Johnson family moved west in 1932 when he was 10 years old. The Vieux and Johnson families have a long history of involvement in tribal government, both with CPN and nationally, and Legislator Johnson continues that tradition. He spoke with Hownikan podcast about the election, his heritage and his hopes for CPN’s future.
“I always want to make sure that I represent the views of my constituents, not just a few of the constituents. I want to represent all the constituents, and I want to hear from all the constituents. That’s a struggle that we’re going to have, I think, going forward is getting people to get involved with their Tribe and with their heritage. It’s fighting the good fight. And we’re going to continue to do that,” he said.
Read more about Legislator Mark Johnson at cpn.news/legislature. Email him at mark.johnson@potawatomi.org.
Hownikan Podcast is produced and distributed by Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s Public Information Department. Subscribe to Hownikan Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud and wherever you find your favorite shows. Find digital editions of the Tribal newspaper here.