Dr. John Paul Calricaraq project underway in Bethel: combining culture and innovation for the healthiest people.

• Author: Harrington, Susan
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Building Alaska

The last barge to Bethel up the Kuskokwim River brought pilings and thermocouples for one of the biggest construction projects in Alaska last fall, and the first barge this spring will bring the steel that was ordered in December. The $300-plus million Dr. Paul John Calricaraq Project (PJCP) consists of a new clinic and renovation of the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) hospital and will improve the health of regional residents in innovative and ground-breaking ways. In fact, the entire project, from inception to financing to design and engineering, is innovative and ground breaking. The project itself is named after visionary elder Dr. Paul John.

According to project documents, "YKHC President and CEO Dan Winkelman mandated the inclusive cultural identity and values for the project."

Winkelman said: "It will be more than just a new building. We are merging Paul John's inspirational teachings and stories of traditional ways of healthy living with national best practice models to provide healthcare services more efficiently and a customer-centered approach ... that incorporates the region's Yup'ik, Cup'ik, and Athabascan cultures."

A wide cross-section of people representing YKHC, including Winkelman, the Executive Board, staff, and customers determined the project's scope and direction in line with the YKHC mission: "Working together to achieve excellent health."

Chairman of the YKHC Board of Directors Esai Twitchell Jr. says, "The PJCP is a much needed project for our region, as we have outgrown the existing facility and it has limited our ability to provide quality care for our people. This project will have a tremendous impact and will change the way we provide service to our people. "

The project team, including the architectural firms Bettisworth North, ZGF, and Jones & Jones, worked with the YKHC group as well as area residents to develop a cultural design for the project that embodies Calricaraq and thousands of years of Yup'ik, Cup'ik, and Athabascan cultural identity and values.

Calricaraq

Calricaraq is a concept adopted by Yukon-Kuskokwim elders and the YKHC Preventative Services Department in 2012 and is the guiding principal of the project and its design. According to project documents, Calricaraq is "a foundation based on the belief that there are important teachings and lessons that each person must learn to become strong and healthy ... Genuine Yup'ik/Cup'ik teachings, values, and traditions are applied throughout the early child and adulthood developmental stages to live a healthy and balanced life. ... To be productive members of a community, knowledge is instilled through healthy parenting, family, and most importantly, by elders who are skilled and knowledgeable in Yup'ik/Cup'ik ways. Collectively, these traditional responsibilities play important roles in emphasizing a healthy people, beginning at conception into adulthood and continuing through eldership."

YKHC is responsible for the health and wellbeing of some 30,000 Alaska Natives from fifty-eight tribes in more than fifty villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and upriver. There are forty-one small village clinics and five larger sub-regional midlevel clinics with a higher level of care that includes lab, diagnostic imaging, and dentists...