The NAACP Bullock County Chapter Health Equity Committee will be hosting a community lunch and learn session next Saturday, April 27th, on health conditions that disproportionately impact minorities and all residents in rural Georgia, specifically heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. ” will be hosted. at the Louetta Moore Park Community Building from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Health disparities and inequalities in health care access and communication are fundamental concerns, especially since Georgia Southern University's Jiang Ping Hsu School of Public Health faculty involved in research and advocacy are key organizers. Dew. The title of the event is “Health is not a goal, it's a way of life.” Lunch will be provided, but those wishing to attend should register via either his QR code on the flyer attached to this article or his email address listed below. You will be asked for it.
“What we're trying to do is talk about specific issues that impact minority and underserved populations, especially here in Bullock County and Statesboro,” Bullock NAACP Health Equity Committee said committee chair Tyrithia Mayo-Gamble. “This is an event for the community and we will talk about the main health conditions that affect our region, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and heart disease. We will answer questions and lend our expertise to We will have a panel of individuals speaking about their experiences.”
Tyrithia Mayo Gamble
Mayo Gamble, Ph.D., MPH, served as chair of the NAACP Committee for two years and was a faculty member in the JPH College of Public Health for seven years. An associate professor of community health, she will become associate dean to lead the university's Public Health Practice Laboratory, effective July 1. She is actively researching how individuals with “lived experience” of chronic illness can support other patients. She is a caregiver to their community and family and serves as a Lunch and Learn moderator and emcee.
Stacey Smallwood, Ph.D., MPH, another JPHCPH associate professor of community health, director of the university's Office of Health Equity and Community Collaboration, will serve as panel moderator.
Panelist members include a nursing director and a dietitian, as well as a third party from the College of Public Health.
“So we take a medical perspective as well as a public health perspective on these chronic diseases, and then we take questions: What do community members want to know to manage their care? have these conditions,” Mayo-Gamble said.
panelists
The nursing directors scheduled to participate are Harry L. Baldwin, RN, BSN, director of dialysis at Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah. The nutritionist is Deera Tolbert. The College of Public Health will be represented by James Thomas, PhD, MPH, senior lecturer in community health education and behavior.
In her role as chair of the NAACP Health Equity Committee, Mayo-Gamble announced that February, Heart Health Month, has the “highest incidence rate in the state of Georgia” and the highest incidence among ethnic minorities in the state. She distributed some statistics regarding the conditions she pointed out. For example, 36.6% of Georgia adults have ever been told by a health care professional that they have high blood pressure, and more than 22,000 people die from cardiovascular disease each year in Georgia. She accounts for one in about three deaths. situation. Her sources included a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention health rankings analysis and a Georgia Department of Public Health report, all of which she cited in more detail.
In his recent “community-based” or “patient-based” research, Mayo Gamble found that patients with sickle cell anemia, a much less common, lifelong, and sometimes debilitating chronic blood disorder. working with people and “community health workers.” Her preliminary study is tracking about 20 people living with sickle cell disease in the Albany and Sylvester areas of southwest Georgia, but whose specialized health care provider, a hematologist, is based in Augusta, four hours away. is based in
community health worker
For the study, Mayo Gamble will train ordinary people, actually people with sickle cell disease, as “community health workers” who will check on patients by phone every month.
The “community worker model,” which uses people with lived experience as monitors and mentors, is “very well-documented and proven” through peer-reviewed research for other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, she said. Stated. She is the principal investigator on a pilot study testing how it works in sickle cell disease, where pain management is a central concern, and community health workers are asking doctors and nurses to It states that the Master may be able to answer questions that are sometimes unanswerable. Using home remedies for symptoms.
“Sometimes other people who have had this condition for several years may be able to say, 'Have you tried this?'” “Have you tried warm compresses?” That's why we… We're saying we want other people with lived experience to answer those questions,” Mayo-Gamble said.
She also served as a liaison between some of the people in the study and their health care providers. For example, if she hears that her pain symptoms have been going on for more than a week, even though her next doctor's appointment is a month or two away, she might call and see the doctor in Albany. Make an appointment with a nurse at a “satellite” location. Doctors use telemedicine connections to consult with doctors.
“For me, it's about bridging the gap in care, because we know that when you have a chronic illness, a lot of things happen between specialist physician visits,” Mayo-Gamble said. . “So, especially if you live in a rural area and you have a satellite reservation, instead of trying to get another reservation, if you live in Statesboro, it's two hours, if you live in Statesboro, it's four hours. It can take a while. Since I'm in Albany, I'll provide a check-in with the health care provider so they don't have to go back and forth.”
Caregiver's perspective
“It just so happens that my husband has sickle cell disease,” she said. “When I talk about lived personal experience in understanding communication with health care providers, I come from a community that is part of that lived experience, but especially in my case from a caregiver perspective. I try to emphasize that…When I have conversations with people who are participating in research and all the community engagement work that I do, I try to include caregivers. ”
For more information about Lunch and Learn or to register, please email bullochnaacpsecretary@gmail.com or tmayogamble@georgiasouthern.edu.
