{"id":8926,"date":"2016-07-05T11:01:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T18:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/medex\/?p=8926"},"modified":"2016-07-05T11:01:38","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T18:01:38","slug":"medexuw-hands-off-dhat-program-to-alaska-tribal-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/medexuw-hands-off-dhat-program-to-alaska-tribal-college\/","title":{"rendered":"MEDEX\/UW Hands-Off DHAT Program to Alaska Tribal College"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/span>n June 3rd<\/sup> two proud Native Alaskans<\/span><\/strong> graduated from the Dental Health Aide Therapist (DHAT) program in Anchorage, AK, while seven students were celebrated for transitioning from their didactic to clinical year. This marks the 12th class of graduating DHAT\u2019s in the life of the innovative program. During these early years MEDEX Northwest worked closely with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) to provide a pathway to a certificate through the University of Washington. Each student was sponsored by their tribal community, and after graduation\u00a0returns to that\u00a0community to provide basic dental services including fillings and preventive care. This is especially needed in remote Native Alaskan communities where itinerant dental workers might pass through once every six months.<\/p>\n

Funding for the DHAT program has come, in part, from The Kellogg Foundation and Rasmuson Foundation.<\/p>\n

[smartslider3 slider=47]<\/div>\n

For the first time one of the transitioning students was from outside Alaska, sponsored by the Coos Bay Nation of Oregon.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s graduation event marked another milestone in the DHAT program. It was jointly announced that the DHAT program will move its academic home to Alaska in 2017, thereby ending it formal association with MEDEX and the University of Washington. For all incoming classes the didactic year of study will come under I\u1e37isa\u0121vik College, Alaska\u2019s only Tribal College.<\/p>\n

The advantages of this move are clear. The DHAT Program will now award an Associate Degree as well as a certificate. And while certificate the represents a milestone of achievement for students\u2014marking the halfway point to degree completion\u2014students will now for the first time be eligible to apply for student financial aid for the training.<\/p>\n

\"11-16_DAHT_389\"<\/a>
MEDEX Program Director Terry Scott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T<\/span>hree members of the MEDEX Seattle faculty<\/strong><\/span> and senior staff traveled to Anchorage to attend the June 3rd<\/sup> DHAT graduation ceremony. Program Director Terry Scott, Director of Academic Affairs Susan Symington and Administrator Donna Lewin were present to participate in the handoff from UW to I\u1e37isa\u0121vik College. Also on hand was Denise Coslett, Anchorage Didactic Site Coordinator, who teaches anatomy and physiology to the first year DHAT students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe handoff between the University of Washington MEDEX program and I\u1e37isa\u0121vik College was one that felt like when your kids grew up and leave home, like proud parents,\u201d says Terry Scott. \u201cIt\u2019s time. Everything is well prepared to stand on its own with another partnership. But you also recognize it\u2019s a little bittersweet. All of us involved are convinced it\u2019s the right move. These students need opportunities to be able to get college credit for the work they\u2019ve put in, and hopefully move on towards a bachelor\u2019s degree, perhaps even further.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right from the start MEDEX saw the parallels between the physician assistant profession and Dental Health Aide Therapists, and was able to offer the initial support. Seeing the Dental Health Aide Therapy program transition to a degree-based program is the obvious next step in the development of this fledgling profession.<\/p>\n

\"Officials<\/a>
Officials in attendance included (left to right) Dr. Mary Willard, D.D.S., DHAT Program Director; Robert Onders, MD, ANTHC Medical Director for Community & Health System Improvement; Terry Scott, MPA, PA-C, MEDEX NW Program Director; Susan Symington, DFAAPA, MPAS, PA-C, MEDEX Director of Academic Affairs; Donna Lewin, MEDEX Administrator; Pearl Brown, President of I\u1e37isa\u0121vik College; and Amanda Sialofi, Program Coordinator for I\u1e37isa\u0121vik College.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dental Health Aides serve much the same role in dentistry as physician assistants in medicine. For twelve years MEDEX Northwest provided a pathway to a UW certificate for the Native Alaskan students of the DENTEX DHAT program. Now, by mutual agreement with ANTHC, MEDEX hands over this responsibility to Alaska\u2019s only Tribal College, I\u1e37isa\u0121vik College, thereby allowing the dental health aide students the possibility of tuition support and an Associate\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medex-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/familymedicine.uw.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}