Jarvis testified about health needs of Native American children

James Jarvis, MD.

Jarvis, who is of Akwesasne Mohawk ancestry, chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Native American Child Health

UB professor studies rheumatic disease and effects of trauma, toxic stress among Native American children

Release Date: March 27, 2015 This content is archived.

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“Toxic stress contributes to negative childhood experiences, making the prevention and treatment of toxic stress and its detrimental health effects central to improving American Indian and Alaska Native child health. ”
James Jarvis, MD, Professor
UB Department of Pediatrics

BUFFALO, N.Y. — James Jarvis, MD, professor of pediatrics in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, testified on March 25 on behalf of the American Academy of Pediatrics before a congressional subcommittee about the need to support critical health programs serving American Indian and Alaska Native children.

He testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies.

Jarvis is of Akwesasne Mohawk ancestry and chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Native American Child Health, has worked on American Indian and Alaska native child health issues for more than 30 years.  He conducts research at UB’s Clinical and Translational Research Center and sees patients at UBMD Pediatrics at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.

Jarvis’s research focuses, in part, on why rheumatic diseases are so common and severe in indigenous American children, especially the role of epigenetic factors from historical traumas and cultural dislocation that may affect how these diseases are expressed in indigenous children. Jarvis currently is principal investigator on a $1.2 million NIH grant to study biomarkers in juvenile idiopathic arthritis. He also is studying the role of epigenetics in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis supported by several foundation grants.

In his testimony, Jarvis supported providing at least the funding requests for the Indian Health Service (IHS) as outlined in President Barack Obama’s proposed FY 2016 budget, which would provide approximately $5 billion in discretionary authority to the IHS, about a $460 million increase over the FY 2015 level. He noted the IHS provides services to a population of 2.2 million, of whom more than a third are younger than 15 years of age.

“I have seen firsthand the unmet health needs of Native children across all Indian Health Service service areas,” said Jarvis. “Poverty, alcoholism, substance abuse, chronic illness, child abuse and other poor health and social conditions are not the cause of problems in Native communities, but the symptoms of them.

“Children who experience strong, excessive and/or prolonged adversity in childhood without the buffer of stable and supportive relationships with caring adults suffer from toxic stress,” he said. “Toxic stress contributes to negative childhood experiences, making the prevention and treatment of toxic stress and its detrimental health effects central to improving American Indian and Alaska Native child health.”

Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is beginning a new chapter in its history with the largest medical education building under construction in the nation. The eight-story, 628,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open in 2017. The new location puts superior medical education, clinical care and pioneering research in close proximity, anchoring Buffalo’s evolving comprehensive academic health center in a vibrant downtown setting.  These new facilities will better enable the school to advance health and wellness across the life span for the people of New York and the world through research, clinical care and the education of tomorrow’s leaders in health care and biomedical sciences. The school’s faculty and residents provide care for the community’s diverse populations through strong clinical partnerships and the school’s practice plan, UBMD.

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