In Tyonek, one health aide holds the village's care together

When someone gets hurt or sick in Tyonek, Robert Stephan is who they see. He is the village's only community health aide — one person standing between 150-some residents and the nearest hospital, across water or sky, in Anchorage.

The gaps he fills are wide. A primary care provider flies into Tyonek once every two months. Behavioral health comes monthly, dental twice a year, eye care once a year. Between those visits, Stephan runs the clinic — X-rays, lab work, telehealth calls to Anchorage doctors — and handles what walks through the door. In summer, when the fishing season swells the village to two or three times its size, the load grows with it. Southcentral Foundation, which oversees the clinic, is trying to hire two more aides for Tyonek. The positions are open.

Stephan came to the work from inside the community. He was a behavioral health aide in Tyonek before training as a community health aide, sits on the board of the Tyonek Native Corporation, and mentors kids through the Boys and Girls Club.

Now he is preparing to go further, enrolling in the physician assistant program the University of Alaska runs with the University of Washington.