Center partnering with Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Faced with an alarming nationwide rise in childhood obesity, the St. Charles Community Health Center is seeking funding to develop a program with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge that could become the national standard toward addressing the problem.
“There is a whole lot of our population that doesn’t take personal responsibility for their individual health status and they get coaching for their own health,” Center CEO Dr. Mark Keiser said. “This isn’t well understood in the whole population compared to upper-end clients. So that’s a big job. That number is a large and growing number.”
Keiser said they’ve completed with the research phase of the program and are seeking another grant from Baptist Community Ministries to go into the second phase to fund pilot sites.
Chief Development Office Liz Teague said they propose to pilot the program at three locations: Albert Cammon Wellness Center in St. Rose, St. Tammany Community Health Center in Slidell and St. Bernard Community Health Center.
A decision on the grant is expected in November.
“The second phase for piloting will let us implement and prove it works, Teague said.
Pennington Biosearch’s role would be oversight and validating results, she said.
“We’re working with state-of-the-art people,” Teague said. “We’re assured then they will review what’s going on, verifying and steering the program to ensure its results. They will be very credible in helping us along this path.”
If the results of the one-year program are favorable, Keiser said they could be applied throughout Louisiana and possibly nationally if adopted by Medicare and Medicaid as services.
The obesity rate is growing at an alarming rate among adolescents in low-income households, he said. Obesity and diabetes rates are linked, which Keiser added won’t be affordable to treat without changing these behaviors with proper diet and nutrition.
“At the federal poverty level the obesity rate is an epidemic in these families, and the chronic health conditions associated with this is tremendous,” he said.Keiser said the program also would support the center’s mission to improve community health by delivering and coordinating the primary care for a particular part of the population, focusing resources on those who lack access to primary medical care.
One of the ways these programs are administered is school-based health centers, he said. One of them opened in spring of this year in Paradis, offering medical services with a primary care provider, a social worker and a dental facility coming on line soon on a limited basis with more to be added over time, Keiser said.
In Norco, dentist Bridgette Jones is the new addition who serves the area, as well as St. Rose.
If the pilot programs are successful, the third phase is to seek funding to take the concept to all its centers.Keiser said the St. Charles Community Health Center evolved from a service provided by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals to an entity by the parish government funded by a public referendum in 1999.
The center is a federally qualified health center, which provides health care primarily to a population regardless of ability to pay, addresses a population with lack of access to services (primarily with low income about 32 percent of parish residents at or below the 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
About three years ago, the organization name changed to Access Health Louisiana to accommodate the expansion of service into neighboring parishes. Access Health operates in nine parishes, mostly in Southeast Louisiana, with 23 locations.
“It’s been quite a growth, but it started in St. Charles Parish,” Keiser said of the operation that had 44,000 visits in the parish alone last year. Systemwide, the number reached 140,000 primary care visits.
Teague said they do a lot of outreach through churches and partner with other groups and organizations, such as United Way of St. Charles Parish, that reach out to people who need health care. They work on Triad Senior Day, Project Transition taught in jail to inmates about to be released who are informed about available resources and services.
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