Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care Program
A manifestation of core tribal values adapted to the realities of modern life.
By Honoring Nations
Honoring Nations 2016 Awardee
Working parents face a dilemma when a child falls ill. Staying home to provide care or finding a relative or friend to help can be a major challenge, especially for single parents, two-worker families, and employees whose jobs offer limited flexibility. The Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care Program offers a safe and nurturing place for mildly ill children to spend the day and gives working parents the assurance that their children are receiving proper care.
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care ProgramHonoring Nations
Forced to Take Time Off Work
The Chickasaw Nation is one of the largest tribes in Oklahoma, with 60% of its more than 70,000 citizens living in the state. In the past twenty years, the Nation has experienced rapid economic growth and significant expansion of its government operations. Today, the Nation employs almost 14,500 people in government departments and tribal enterprises.
The smooth functioning of Chickasaw government and business operations depends on the effectiveness of this sizeable workforce. By the mid-2000s, however, employee absenteeism began to take a toll. A 2007 study by the Nation’s Economic Development Department found that in many cases, employees took days off work not because they were sick themselves but because they needed to care for others.
Families are smaller in size, and adults remain in the workforce longer, so traditional extended family caregiving is also less common. If parents cannot find people they trust to look after their sick children, taking time off work is the only option.
For parents who earn hourly wages or do not have paid sick leave, each missed day represents lost family income. And yet, the problem is inevitable: the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that elementary school-age children suffer from colds or the flu between eight and twelve times a year.
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care ProgramHonoring Nations
A Safe Place for Mildly Ill Children
In 2009, the Chickasaw Nation Economic Development Department, working in cooperation with the Chickasaw Child Development Center, proposed a novel approach to meeting the needs of working parents and their children – the Chickasaw Sick Child Care Program.
When a child arrives at the center, a Registered Nurse conducts an initial assessment to rule out severe or highly contagious illness. Each child’s health is monitored throughout the day, and under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chickasaw Medical Center and the Sovereign Medical Clinic, Sick Child Care staff nurses administer medical tests and dispense medication to children as needed.
Center staff also update parents by text or email and, at pick-up, make a recommendation concerning the child’s return to daycare or school.
Today, Chickasaw Nation employees and area families are active users of the Sick Child Care Program’s services and have great confidence in the care their children receive.
Cultural Caregiving
The Chickasaw Sick Child Care Program is the only service of its kind in the state of Oklahoma and the first in Indian Country. The program is well integrated into the area’s child care and medical infrastructure.
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care ProgramHonoring Nations
While formed to address the needs of Chickasaw Nation citizens and employees, the program is available to all area children, making life easier for working families and employers across the region. In sum, both the existence and design of the program reflect the tribe's leadership in governance innovation. The Chickasaw Nation identified a problem in the community and developed a successful response that serves its citizens and its neighbors.
Significantly, these cultural connections are advantages of a tribally controlled program: the Chickasaw Nation, not outside authorities, determine these key aspects of program operation and design.
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care ProgramHonoring Nations
Bringing the Lessons Home
A modern economic reality is that sick children often equate with missed work days for parents. With its Sick Child Care Program, the Chickasaw Nation makes it possible for parents to take care of family members while maintaining their economic productivity, and for mildly ill children to get proper medical supervision and enriching cultural experiences when they cannot be in school.
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care ProgramHonoring Nations
Lesson 1: When tribal governments empower their employees and citizens to identify and address solutions to community challenges, they lay the groundwork for successful tribal programs.
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care ProgramHonoring Nations
Lesson 2: Tribal programs that serve both Native and non-Native community members build goodwill.
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care ProgramHonoring Nations
Lesson 3: Personnel policies that provide for useful and ongoing training result in excellent customer service, community-focused programs, and above-par employee retention.
HONORING NATIONS: 2016 Awardee
Chickasaw Nation Sick Child Care Program
Chickasaw Nation
Text provided by:
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
Honoring Nations Awards 2016
https://hpaied.org/sites/default/files/publications/SickChildCareProgram-FINAL.pdf
