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Grant sought to help Ellaville
with alarming health statistic
with alarming health statistic
Schley County has more cardiovascular deaths from heart attacks than any other county in the state of Georgia. This is a statistic that many people living here would find shocking and hard to accept. But the data comes from the Georgia Department of Community Health 2001 Rural Health Chart book, which was done in conjunction with the work of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services 2001 Task Force, and although it is five years old, the figure remains as the most up to date information available.
Mary Ann Shepherd APRN, BC, family nurse practitioner of Ellaville Primary Health Care, is working on an application for a grant to try to correct this alarming statistic. Working with Sumter Regional Hospital, the owner of the clinic, Sheppard is in the process of gathering information and support from groups throughout the community. The grant would be from the United States Department of Health and Human Services
"We need to start educating our youth about the dangers of unhealthy eating habits and self destructive life styles, and we need to re-educate our adults and work with them to control their health problems," Shepherd said. "The grant would be designed to provide both screening and individualized counseling for hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol."
Should Shepherd be successful in receiving the grant, the counseling would cover nutritional needs, life style changes, healthy cooking instructions, and exercising guidelines. The program would partner with companies, churches, schools, and civic groups. Each would provide space for the grant workers to set up and access to the employees or members to participate in the program.
In Wilkes County a similar grant program was implemented with very satisfactory results. In one participating church, the members were challenged to bring healthy covered dishes to church suppers. The results show what can be done to improve the overall health of the county by accessing resources available through federal grants.
Part of the grant application process calls for memorandums of agreement or understanding, which show this support. These MOA's are needed to succeed in getting the grant. Groups are urged to contact Shepherd to obtain information about this grant application. Her phone is (229) 937-5321 and e-mail is msshepherd@sumterregional.org.
