Allendale Women's Health Project
| Topics |
Health promotion and disease prevention
Wellness
Women
|
| States served |
South Carolina
|
| Description |
Allendale County, South Carolina, is located in the
southwestern part of the State, and is approximately 65 miles south
of Augusta, Georgia and 70 north of Savannah, Georgia. The
closest cities in South Carolina are Charleston (90 miles east) and
Columbia (100 miles north). The county spans approximately
408 square miles, and the county is home to approximately
11,700 residents. Of these, roughly two-third are African American,
and 60 percent have incomes below 200 percent of the Federal
poverty level.
In the 3 years prior to a grant from the Federal Office of Rural
Health Policy, Allendale County’s infant mortality rate was
13.8 percent per 1,000 live births. The county’s teen pregnancy rate
was among the highest in the Nation, and 51.7 percent of pregnant
women in the county received inadequate prenatal care. Some
14.4 percent of births in the county were considered lowbirthweight
babies. |
| Services offered |
The goals of the Allendale Women’s Health Project were to:
- Increase the availability and accessibility of primary health
care services to women
- Improve birth outcomes and reduce infant mortality in
Allendale County
- Improve the over all health status of women living in the
county.
To accomplish these goals, the project expanded the hours of
operation for the Low Country Health Care System, which is a
federally qualified health center. It also sought to make
transportation to and from health appointments available to
everyone without restrictions and provided two pregnancy
intervention specialists and a health educator to educate women
about the importance of prenatal care, how to prevent an
unintended pregnancy, and ways to reduce their risk for cancer,
heart disease, and a range of acute and chronic illnesses. Area
medical practitioners routinely provided their patients with referrals
so that women in their care could benefit from counseling and
education services.One of the most innovative aspects of the program was the
consortium itself. Low Country Health System joined forces with Low Country Healthy Start and the Allendale County Health
Department to identify women in need of care and to deliver
primary health care and prenatal care services. The fourth member
of the consortium was the Allendale Council on Aging, which
provided a van to transport the women to and from appointments.
The van operated 40 hours per week and was accessible to all
women needing transportation to health care or health education
services.
The transportation program was so successful that a
coalition of local organizations decided to spearhead a countywide
transportation system now known as the Low Country Regional
Transportation Dispatch system. This new system ensures that the
lack of transportation will no longer be a barrier to accessing
medical care for county residents. |
| Results |
The project provided services to nearly 7,000 women, the
majority of whom were African American. More than 4,800 were
adolescents, nearly, 1400 were adult women, and nearly 700 were
elderly. The project also provided nearly 2,500 transports between
October 2001 and December 2003, and nearly 3,000 women
participated in 177 health education classes sponsored by the
program. The pregnancy intervention specialists served an average
of 18 women per month. Some patients received referrals for
mental health or substance abuse treatment, but this was a small
number of patients due to the lack of behavioral health treatment
services in the community and recent State budget cuts for these
services. In addition, 326 women participated in individual family
planning classes, and numerous women benefited from educational
classes on breast self-examination.
During the first year of the grant cycle, the project expanded
clinic hours to one evening per week. This approach was intended
to make services more accessible to women at more convenient
times. However, an average of only five women took advantage of
the services available during hours. The project tried to advertise
the extended hours via local newspapers and radio stations, but
these efforts did not attract additional clients during evening hours.
Ultimately, the project decided to cease offering expanded clinic
hours. |
| Replication |
This model will work well in other rural communities as long
as local providers are willing to work together to share and coordinate services and discuss patient progress. Other
communities, however, should be prepared for the challenges of
finding sufficient funding sources to cover the cost of salaries and
identifying adequately trained, culturally competent personnel.
Low Country Health System continues to provide women’s
health services and transportation for clients in need. It also
provides a nurse midwife to consult with clients at Low Country
Healthy Start, which has retained a pregnancy intervention
specialist to sustain the availability of counseling and education
services for teenage girls in Allendale County, as well as the health
educator who now provides health education services in a fourcounty
region. |
| Source |
Outreach Sourcebook, Vol.11, 2001-2004, Office of Rural Health Policy
|
| Contact person |
David C. Hayden
Executive Director
Low Country Health Care System
P.O. BOX 990
Fairfax, SC 29827
Phone: 803-632-2533 |
| Date added |
May 21, 2009 |
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