Leflore County is one of eight rural Mississippi counties to benefit from an $800,000 grant from an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that will help residents get access to services to prevent diabetes.
The Tallahatchie General Hospital Medical Foundation, based in Charleston, was adwarded the grant to launch Delta Thriving, a four-year program. It seeks to expand the use of telehealth services to connect diabetic patients with doctors specializing in the treatment of diabetes, help patients manage their chronic conditions and reduce related complications and unnecessary health care spending, among other goals.
“This program helps to really educate and empower Mississippians to help them make better health choices,” said Dr. Catherine Moring, executive director of the James C. Kennedy Wellness Center, which is part of The Tallahatchie General Hospital Medical Foundation. “We’re just really hoping to bring a light and hope to people in Mississippi struggling with diabetes” and to help prevent complications that arise from the disease, she added.
Moring, who wrote the grant to receive funding from the Health Resources and Services Adminstration Rural Health Care Outreach Services Program, serves as project director for Delta Thriving, which began in January. The seven other counties covered are Coahoma, Grenada, Panola, Quitman, Sunflower, Tallahatchie and Yalobusha.
Diabetes affects how the body processes food into energy. Type 2 diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes, usually develops as a result of lifestyle and diet, Moring said.
In rural counties, the combination of food deserts, where access to affordable, nutritious food is limited, and the abundance of fast food restaurants and cheap food items that are high in processed refined carbohydrates can lead to a poor diet, Moring said. Add a sedentary lifestyle, and a person can be susceptible to Type 2 diabetes.
Mississippi ranked first in the nation in 2016 for overall diabetes prevalence with close to 308,300 Mississippians living with the disease, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.
That same year, 1,083 deaths were attributed to diabetes, and many Mississippians lived with complications from Type 2 diabetes, including amputations, blindness and heart disease, according to the department.
The mission of Delta Thriving, Moring said, is to help patients make more informed health choices and give them access to specialists through referrals and other resources, which will include telehealth service, health fairs and community screenings.
“Once people know how to do better, they do better,” Moring said.
In rural pockets of Mississippi, such as the Delta, preventive health programs are lacking, she said. Although there may be general physicians in the region who can treat diabetes, there are not many specialists well-versed in helping patients manage the disease, she said.
Moring and her team have been reaching out to doctors and medical clinics across the eight-county region to inform them of the program so that doctors and clinics can refer their patients to it. Telehealth services have made treatment more accessible, Moring said.
For more information, visit jckwellness.com. Those interested in the program can contact Moring at cmoring@mytgh.com or 501-276-5459.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 662-581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
