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Monday, 18 November 2013
Learning Objective 1: The learner will understand the importance of incorporating the lay community in health promotion and disease prevention.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will understand the importance of incorporating the faith-based community in health promotion and disease prevention.
The purpose of this project is to reduce health disparities in the state of Mississippi through community empowerment and partnerships between academic medical centers and the faith-based community. PROJECT DESCRIPTION – The state of Mississippi leads the nation in many chronic diseases such as Obesity, Diabetes, and Hypertension. This is further exacerbated by the limited number of primary care providers, especially in rural areas, and low health literacy in many areas of the state. As the only academic medical center in the state of Mississippi, the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) has taken a major interest in partnering with various faith and community-based organizations who share the medical center’s concern about improving Mississippi’s poor health rankings. Two programs have been developed to address this issue, the Community Health Advocate (CHA) Program and the Healthy Living Program (HLP). The CHA program is designed to empower lay persons in communities to adopt healthy lifestyles and also assist others in his or her community in doing the same. This program includes several models which address the major chronic diseases of the state. These models provide basic information about the disease as well as basic skills assessments. In addition to faith and community-based organizations, the CHA program has also been adopted by the UMMC’s School of Medicine. In this instance, first year medical students are trained as community health advocates and are required to conduct health screenings/education in communities. The HLP, a companion to the CHA program, provides basic practical healthy eating and weight management information for lay persons. UMMC has partnered with several faith-based and educational facilities to train a host of Community Health Advocates to work in communities throughout the state. This presentation will discuss, in detail, how Mississippi’s sole academic medical center is partnering with communities to address health disparities.