On Friday, the Dena'ina Wellness Center celebrated it's tenth anniversary of providing holistic healthcare to the Kenai Peninsula. Operated by the Kenaitze Indian Tribe, the 52,000 square foot facility offers dental, vision, primary care, behavior health and traditional healing services.
The tribe's primary healthcare facility started as a small clinic in a strip mall in Kenai. It later grew to several buildings scattered around town, each offering different services. The tribal council first envisioned a comprehensive clinic in the late 1990s, later purchasing property in Old Town Kenai.
The current center officially opened in 2014. According to its website, the facility follows a whole-person approach toward wellness – addressing physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
“We’re able to really help our people and their families in a meaningful way, because we address the whole person,” said Mary Ann Mills, vice chair of the Kenaitze Indian Tribe. “That’s our Dene' philosophy of care.”
The center primarily serves Alaska Native and indigenous people, but programs that receive state funding are open to all people. Today, the center has provided services for up to 8,000 Native and non-Native people.
To accommodate a growing demand for services, the tribe is now looking for ways to expand.
“After the second year or so, we realized we had already outgrown the building," said Bernadine Atchison, tribal council chair. "That’s when we started thinking ‘how do we expand?’ That’s kind of a future thing, what are we going to do with wellness? Because we really need to have a bigger area for them.”
Atchison says the tribe is actively looking for new property to expand the clinic's services.
About 100 people attended Friday’s celebration. Attendees included tribal members, healthcare workers and patients. Present on behalf of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office was Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom.
“When I walked into some place I hadn’t been before, there was a very good feeling in that building," Dahlstrom said. "You could tell that everybody there was welcomed, and they were welcoming everyone else. I was thrilled to learn about all the different types of wellness.”
Dahlstrom says the center’s approach to modern medicine combined with holistic healing is vital to the health of the region. She says the state values the work and services of the clinic.
“Healthcare is just something that’s so important, but it's more than just physical," Mills said. "It’s mental, it’s spiritual, and when you’re able to combine the wraparound services that we have, and the idea of the connection of the mind, body, spirit and emotional wellbeing, I think it really helps with the healing of the whole person.”
All Alaska Native and indigenous people are eligible to receive services at the Dena’ina Wellness Center. The center is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
