Sexual Abuse Prevention
The mission of the Indian Health Service is to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level. In accomplishing this mission, the Indian Health Service places priority on the provision of high quality health care, while protecting patients and employees, and fostering a culture of safety and freedom from fear of reprisal throughout the agency.
The Indian Health Service has implemented extensive measures to promote and enhance patient safety and accountability. Our efforts are multi-faceted and involve oversight through quality assurance reviews, policy development and education, compliance enforcement, training for staff on the identification and reporting of sexual abuse in health care settings, and stringent professional standards and credentialing practices for our health care providers.
Throughout this improvement journey, we work closely with tribal and urban partners on ways to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation. Valuable input from across Indian Country has resulted in a robust effort that cuts across all Indian Health Service programs for the unified mission of patient safety.
We developed this site for the purpose of educating patients and Indian Health Service employees of our efforts in patient safety and preventing discrimination, harassment and sexual abuse. The site also serves as a resource to obtain information on prevention and reporting of harassment and sexual abuse.
