Darlene Sorrell
Providing Excellent Services Despite
Odds
Darlene
Sorrell, Navajo, DMD, has been serving as the Director
of Clinical Services at the Albuquerque Indian Health Service Dental
Program since 1994.
More than 40 hours each week, she cares for patients at
this urban clinic. In addition, she has administrative
and leadership responsibilities that have included
keeping the clinic alive. In 2002 when the service
unit’s dental funding was distributed to surrounding
tribal groups that chose to manage their dental program
funds, the lack of federal funding for urban dental and
medical centers became dramatically clear. Sorrell says,
“Our options were to close or get very creative.”
Sorrell and her colleagues were creative and found ways
to support and even grow their program so that now it
serves even more people, and it is minimally dependent
on the federal government.
The
Love of Hands-on Work
Sorrell remembers always wanting to be a dentist. “I liked
the idea of using my hands to help provide needed dental
care not only on the reservation but across the country.”
Sorrell never talked with her high school counselor about
her careers plans because she had heard many stories of
counselors who discouraged American Indian students from
entering the health professions. “Instead, I went to the
University of Arizona at Tucson for my undergraduate work
and started figuring it out from there, “ she explains.
Sorrell’s first real exposure to dentistry was during two
summers and Christmases at Tuba City Dental Clinic.
There, as
part of a program sponsored by the Navajo Health
Authority, she assisted with some dental procedures and
with the fluoride program.
Lacking confidence that she would get into dental school on
her first try, Sorrell did her undergraduate degree in
medical technology, planning to work as a medical
technologist until getting into dental school. However, the
School of Dentistry at Oregon Health and Science University
in Portland Oregon accepted her immediately.
Sorrell found that the coursework was challenging. However,
facing cultural issues, balancing two worlds, and relating
to students from educated, economically well-off families
was even more challenging. “Navajos believe that you’re not
supposed to dissect the human body – the cadaver. Four of
us were assigned to work with each cadaver. I tried to stay
away from touching the cadaver but that wasn’t possible.
Most of the tests and quizzes were on the body so I
couldn’t just study out of the book. I had to tell my
parents what I was up against. They told me what I needed
to do. After I passed the course, I had a traditional
ceremony to put me back in harmony with my surroundings. In
Oregon there was nobody around to talk with about this. I
didn’t think the students would understand.”
“In the 1970s and 1980s, these kinds of challenges were not
uncommon for American Indian students,” says Sorrell. Today
the number of American Indian dental students has
increased. Hopefully, this is resulting in more peer and
faculty support and understanding.”
While getting her own education, Sorrell helped prepare
other American Indian students for higher education. The
summer before dental school, she lived in the dorm at
Navajo Community College (now known as Diné College) where she
served as a tutor and counselor for 25 Navajo high
school juniors. The summer following her first year in
dental school, Sorrell was a peer counselor for high
school students in the Hopi Health Manpower program.
Later, she tutored 25 American Indian students as part
of a Northwest Portland Area Indian Health
Board program.
Prevention
Work
After completing her second year of dental school, Sorrell
enhanced her skills the next two summers as a COSTEP
student (Commissioned Officer Student Training and Extern
Program) at the Tuba City Dental Clinic. When she graduated
from dental school, Sorrell entered the IHS and went to
Second Mesa on the Hopi Reservation where she supervised
two staff dentists and four dental auxiliaries at the Keams
Canyon Dental Clinic. “We had a strong prevention program
and implemented an effective sealant program in seven grade
schools throughout the Hopi Reservation,” she remembers.
Three years later Sorrell became Chief of the Juneau Dental
Program at the Southeast Alaska Regional Health
Corporation. This
comprehensive program, with its strong prevention
component, served Juneau and the village of Hoonah.
Then, as an IHS advanced general practice resident,
Sorrell moved to the Alaska Native Medical Center
where she
had to travel by small plane to remote Alaskan Native
communities that lacked roads. Following her residency,
Sorrell became an assistant area dental officer at the
Alaska Dental Area Office in Anchorage.
Sorrell describes her time in Alaska as “exciting” and
“adventurous”. Corporations in Alaska administer health
care at the local level. Sorrell feels that working in this
system helped prepare her for the current situation in
which local tribes and pueblos are increasingly taking
control of their own health care.
In 1994, with the more advanced skills that she had
acquired in her residency program Sorrell was promoted to
Chief, Complex Program, Service Unit Dental Program
at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic
Institute. This
program, then the largest IHS dental program, provided
preventive, rehabilitative, and urgent dental care to
the approximately 30,000 American Indians who live in
Albuquerque and the surrounding communities of Alamo,
Isleta, Sandia, Santa Ana, Zia and Jemez. “I was
attracted to coming here because I thought I could have
a larger impact,” Sorrell explains.
Sorrell indeed has made an impact, improving the health and
the lives of countless Indian people. In the future she
hopes to become more involved with dental health care on
the Navajo reservation. She also has ideas for some dental
inventions that she hopes to develop and patent.
Advice
Sorrell recommends that students who are contemplating a
career in dentistry connect with someone in the field and
get exposure to dentistry. She herself has an open door
policy for American Indian students who want to shadow her
at her clinic. Students are also welcome to be volunteers,
though that requires lengthy paperwork. Sorrell also
recommends that students stay in touch with organizations
such as the Society of American Indian
Dentists (SAID), that
can provide them with information about relevant
conferences, activities, and scholarships.
This
article was originally published in the Spring 2007 issue
of
Winds of Change. (The cover
artist, Buffalo Gouge, Creek and Cherokee, works with
bright colors. Portraits are his main interest. For more
information visit Art Exchange Galleries.)