2007 Archived News Articles

Mental Health Services Reform

Community Health Fair

Walking Program

N.C. Mentor Program

Diabetes Awareness 		HealthQuest helps Ansonians with drug costs

Camp Summer Breathe

Dolly Parton Imagination Library update

Task Force hears about prevention program

World AIDS Day observed in Anson County


Puppet Ministry puts on show

The first puppet show presented by the puppet ministry was held at Wadesboro Church of God (Pastor Donald Wise). Shown above are members of the the newly-formed group. The youths are members of Harris Chapell AME Zion Church (Pastor Bernice Bennett). The ministry is funded through a grant awarded to the Anson Parish Nurse and Health Ministry.

Task Force hears about prevention program

(Sept. 26, 2007) --      Melinda McDonald spoke at the Sept. 19 Healthy Ansonians Task Force meeting. McDonald is a Prevention Consultant with Prevention Services, a division of ADS (Alcohol and Drug Services) contracted with Sandhills Mental Health. Fifteen Preventive Consultants serve the 10-county area and are based in Guilford County.
     ADS is a nationally certified United Way Agency and offers substance abuse prevention programs in schools, churches, after-school and summer programs.
     McDonald said that Prevention Consultants are not counselors. Their methods include group talks, videos, games and kid-to-kid talks teaching social skills such as anger management.      Prevention Services also hold community forums that include nurses, probation officers and other who deal with juveniles. Parent education groups teach what signs to look for to tell if their child is using drugs or alcohol.
     “We are trying to reach the kids who haven’t started drugs and give them information on what drugs do to them. Parents are welcome at these after-school meetings,” McDonald said.
     Parents must sign a consent form for a child to participate in the programs, she said. “If we can’t get into the school system, we reach the kids through churches and after school,” McDonald said.
      Rev. W.W. Williamson asked if the Prevention Consultants served public housing.
     “Yes, we will set up a meeting place,” McDonald answered. She added that ADS is a

non-profit organization and does not charge to set up a meeting.
     She said that there could be 12-week to two-year life-style sessions that can go to three years.
     “We do not do individual sessions except for the initial assessment,” she said. McDonald added that the Prevention Consultants must be contacted by the schools before they can do a program there. She said that she had left information about ADS in all Anson County Schools, but had not yet been contacted.
     “We have 22 community support agencies in the county,” said Fred Thompson, Ph.D., CEO and Administrator of Anson Community Hospital, and co-chair of the HA Task Force. “ Teachers feel that there are too many trying to get in the classroom. They feel it is disruptive.”
     Several HA Task Force members suggested ways McDonald might reach the schools, such as getting on the agenda at a school board meeting or asking to appear at a PTA meeting.

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Zana Lambert displays pictures taken at the 2007 Camp Summer Breathe, a camp for asthmatic children.

Camp Summer Breathe

     Zana Lambert, manager of cardiopulmonary services at Anson Community Hospital, reported on the success of Camp Summer Breathe at the July 10 meeting of the Healthy Ansonians Task force.
     The theme of the 2007 camp was "Reach for the Stars -- the Sky's the Limit." Lambert said the children learned about athletes, entertainers and other well-known figures who have or had asthma.
     Assisting with the camp were Dr. Lisa Bracey-Cash and Sharon Knotts, Family Nurse Practitioner, who gave presentations. Nursing students from South Piedmont Community College came to help out, also.
     "One of the problems is that people don't know what can trigger an asthma attack," Lambert said. She added that some triggers are second-hand smoke and pets. "We teach the kids and they teach their parents," she said. "And, the kids teach us, too."
     A novel way to teach this summer was through a puppet show, Lambert said, that was very popular. Other highlights for the campers, in addition to swimming in the Little Park pool and playing games, was a visit to the Rotary

Planetarium and Science Center, a visit from a representative of a drug company who attended on his day off and gave each child a goody bag, and goody bags from the Healthy Ansonians Injury Control/SafeKids/Safe Communities committee.
     "Camp Summer Breathe is a good example of the local community coming together for the local community," said Fred Thompson, PH.D., ACH administrator and 2007 Healthy Ansonians chairman.      In all, 37 children attended the camp, Lambert said. "Every child there asked if we could please make it longer." Ages ranged from six to 12, although there were a few veteran campers of 13 and 14. Most had been diagnosed at the age of two or three. Campers were divided evenly between girls and boys, she said.
     Suggestions for next year include inviting parents for lunch on the last day, and inviting older campers to return as junior counselors.
     Thompson said that there has been an increase in pediatric asthma due to such factors as environmental pollution and an inactive lifestyle.

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Dolly Parton Imagination Library looking for young readers

     Elaine Scarborough, director of Anson County Partnership for children and chairman of the HA Maternal and Child Health Committee, said that 700 children are participating in the Imagination Library Program. Scarborough said that she would like to see every child in the county enrolled in the program.
     Each child receives an age-specific book a month from birth until age five at no cost to the parents. The program is subsidized by ACPC, the Wadesboro Rotary Club and donations from businesses and individuals. Applications are available at the ACPC office, 117 S. Greene St., Wadesboro.
     Scarborough added that four ACPC staff attend the national conference in Dollywood, where they met the program's founder, the legendary Dolly Parton. "We found out that no one raised more money for the program than Anson County," she said.

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Sandhills CEO explains reforms

      Michael Watson, chief executive officer of the re-organized Sandhills Center, met with the Healthy Ansonians Task Force on May 8 and updated members and guests on how the reforms established by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2006 has affected the communities the Center serves.
     Although the Center has retained psychiatric services in all eight counties that the Center serves, divested are developmental disability and substance abuse services, which have been contracted to private companies. By divesting its service delivery capacity, he said the Center has assumed a complex management role in the new system.
     In Anson County, the Center’s Wadesboro office, located on Old Lilesville Road, will continue to serve as an access point where individuals will be seen, assessed and assisted in learning how the system works – in addition to providing psychiatric services.
     Watson said the Sandhills Center’s local business plan “has been a very elaborate planning process for the past four-five months” and that the plan is “a result of community feedback from forums that were held in each county.”
     Implementation goals set forth in the business plan include community education, crisis services and provider monitoring, Watson said.
     According to the business plan, Sandhills Center will increase community understanding on how the current community services function; provide community education in the areas of service access and crisis services; and provide assistance to family support groups and community advocacy organizations to enhance consumer and family understanding of the changing service system.
     Watson said admissions to state-run hospitals have gone up and that Dorothea Dix has been closed to female patients. He said the worst case scenario is that patients will now back up in local hospital emergency departments.
     “We need more local, more convenient options,” Watson said, especially in the area of

From left, Fred Thompson, Ph.D., Anson Community Hospital administrator; Theodus Rhodes, director of the Sandhills Center’s Wadesboro office; and Dr. Francis Kateh, Anson County Health Department administrator.

“how to prevent crises before they come to the emergency department."
     One way to alleviate local crises, Watson said, is to work with hospitals within the Center’s service area for contract services.
     With the Center’s divestiture of services, Watson said, providers were conditionally endorsed with the promise of accreditation within three years to minimize the impact on consumers. Community support organizations bundled case management with professional and para-professionals providing the work. As it turned out, Watson said, a vast majority of the work was being done by para-professionals.
     He said a comprehensive review of community support services is underway, reviewing the work of para-professionals (those with a high school degree and some college tuition), the quality of services rendered and, in some cases, fraud.
     After the reviews have been completed, Watson said he expects a “big shakeout and we’ll see some providers go out of business.”
     In the coming months, he said, the Center will be looking at what the system needs, listening to the community and working through system problems.”
     Click HERE to read the Business Plan for the Sandhills Center.


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Anson Community Hospital held its annual Community Health Fair on May 8, 2007. Representing the Healthy Ansonians Task Force were the Injury Control committee providing free literature on how to prevent accidents and injuries, and the Anson Parish Nurse and Health Ministries.



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The Active Ansonians Walking Program got off to a great start on March 7. At the March 13 Task Force meeting, Kimberly Marsh reported that 93 participants had signed up. She said that the program will meet on Wednesdays through April 11, with walkers meeting at 7:00 a.m., noon or 5:30 p.m. on the Anson Community Hospital campus. Incentives include bright yellow t-shirts, water bottles and other goodies.



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Keri Standridge, left, is shown with Healthy Ansonian's 2007 chairman, Fred Thompson, Ph.D. at the March 13 meeting. Standridge spoke about the N.C. Mentor Program, a mental health provider for children and adults in 37 states. The program provides outpatient therapy, therapeutic foster care and family therapy. She said program specializes in behavioral health and takes referrals from the Department of Social Services, Juvenile Justive, schools, and parents or guardians. "We try to keep kids and adults in their own community by connecting them to resources," she said and a plan of action can change daily. "We start where we are and take baby steps to where we want to be." The program has been in Anson County for 10 years and is currently seeking national accreditation through the Commission of Accreditation for Rehabilitative Facilities. The N.C. Mentor office is located on Wortham Street in Wadesboro.


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Diabetes Alert Day

     Tuesday, March 27, is the annual Diabetes Alert, sponsored by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). But in truth, any month and any day is prime time to sound the alarm about diabetes: Left untreated, it can lead to blindness, heart disease, strokes, kidney failure and even amputations, amounting to an estimated $132 billion in direct and indirect costs annually. And diabetes is on the rise, affecting one-fifth of the population. It’s known to be more common among African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Especially if your workforce is ethnically diverse, make March your month to step up diabetes prevention education. And don't stop there – Get Your Blood Glucose Checked!! For the Healthy Ansonians Mobile Health Clinic Schedule, click HERE or call 704-695-3488.
Top 4 Fad-Free Nutrition Tips
     “Cures” for being overweight are everywhere. Bookstore shelves and supermarket checkout lanes display the latest diets. TV advertisements hawk fat-burning pills and other quick-and-easy weight-loss gimmicks. The Internet runs rampant with unproven “miracle” remedies.
     During Nutrition Month, the American Dietetic Association (ADA) has a different message, and it’s a good one for these media-saturated times: Be 100% Fad Free. You don’t need fad diets to lose weight, the ADA says. Simply eating less will do the

job. The trick is to make it a habit for life rather than a short-term trend.
     That’s a message worth sharing, and here’s how:
     Go to http://www.mypyramid.gov/. That’s the USDA site where consumers can tailor a healthy eating plan for their individual lifestyles and goals. The ADA points out that developing a lifelong eating plan, not one fueled by fads, is key to good nutrition and weight control.
     Be nutritionally diverse. You don’t need to eradicate candy, cupcakes and other fats and sweets from your vending machines or grab bowls. Just be sure they’re balanced with healthier choices, such as pretzels or dried fruit — even part-skim mozzarella sticks in the company refrigerator. When eaten in appropriate portions, all foods can fit into a healthy diet.
     Balance food and physical activity. Stay physically active — an essential element of weight controls.
     Make Smart Nutritional Choices. Adopt solid, time-tested strategies for eating well that fit right in with your lifestyle.
     Seeing the big picture rather than jumping from fad to fad is the key to long-term weight control — and long-term health. Help employees focus on overall health, and good nutrition can come naturally.
Submitted By: Linda Griffin RN, BSN; Healthy Ansonians Mobile Health Screening Clinic; Anson Community Hospital


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HealthQuest helps Ansonians with drug costs

     Leigh Ann Morris, Pharm.D., pharmacist with Anson Community Hospital, shared information about HealthQuest, an organization that provides free prescription services, to the Healthy Ansonians Task Force on Jan. 17.
     Morris said that the non-profit organization began in 1999 with volunteer pharmacists, but has since added an additional full-time paid pharmacist.
     HealthQuest serves people over 18 in Union, Anson and Chesterfield counties who have no prescription drug coverage, are not on Medicaid or Medicare, and have a household income of less that 175% of the federal poverty level.
     HealthQuest's drugs are samples donated by drug companies and local doctors. Medications also are acquired through pharmaceutical companies with patient assistance programs. Grants and donations from businesses and individuals are used to pay for some medications that must be purchased.
     Morris said that a person must first make an appointment to see if he or she is eligible.
     Once accepted, a client may receive up to six prescriptions a month. The average client's prescriptions have a retail cost of $485, but clients pay only $15 a month for administrative costs. Morris stressed that these are maintenance drugs, and that HealthQuest does not fill emergency prescriptions.
     Since the first prescription was filled in April 1999, HealthQuest has dispensed 194,714 prescriptions with a retail value of over $16 million.

Leigh Ann Morris and Fred Thompson
     The Union-Anson Alliance is a committee working through area churches to get the word out about this free service. Referrals are also made through the Anson County Sheriff's Office.
     Morris noted one drawback for Anson County clients is that they must travel to the pharmacy in Monroe once a month to pick up their medications.
     Even so, Morris said, "We're lucky to have it."

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World AIDS Day observed in Anson County

     Anson County's first recognition of World AIDS Day was held on Dec. 1 on The Square in Wadesboro with the theme "Prevention is Everybody's Business."
     "It's not just health care professionals, it's everybody in the community," said presenter Chanel Ledbetter, HIV case manager with the Anson County Health Department. Ledbetter explained that she is responsible for seeing that HIV patients get the services they need.
     Pam Vernon, a nurse with the health department, said that her specialty is communicable diseases. She said that the health department provides free blood tests for HIV Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. No appointment is necessary and staff will answer questions at any time.
     Vernon also said that counseling is available both before the test and after if it proves positive for HIV. "Twenty years ago HIV was a death sentence," Vernon said. "Now we treat it as a chronic disease. Patients are not treated any differently than those with any other disease."
     Dr. Francis Kateh, director of the health department, said that he recently met a fellow health care professional who had lived with HIV for 26 years and looked very healthy. "I would not believe it if he hadn't told me," Kateh said.
     Kateh said that his role at the health department is threefold: managing day-to-day affairs; working with the staff, the board and the county commisssioners to come up with policies to protect citizens from things that cause risk; and to enforce public health laws.
     He asked the audience to "become


Bringing awareness of HIV-AIDS to the community on Dec. 1 were, from left, Dr, Francis Kateh, director, Chanel Ledbetter, HIV case worker, and Pam Vernon, RN, all of the Anson County Health Department, Faye Lotharp and Pastor Sylvia McLendon.


ambassadors for the health department and spread the word that the disease can be controlled." There have been lots of discoveries in the way to treat the disease and advances in medication, he said, to where now patients take only one pill a day compared to the many drugs they formerly took.
     "The key is early diagnosis," Kateh said. "If it is caught early, you can live a normal, healthy life."
     Kateh said that Anson County is on a downward trend in new HIV cases. "It is happening because of education. It is no longer a taboo subject. Go out and talk to your neighbors and friends," he urged.
     Preceding the presentations, Ledbetter welcomed onlookers and Pastor Sylvia McLendon offered a prayer that was followed by the reading of Psalm 22 by Faye Lotharp. A moment of silence in memory of AIDS victims was held, after which the panel and audience read the HIV/AIDS Creed. Pastor McLendon then sang a moving and forceful spiritual.
     Following the remarks, Ledbetter lit candles in memory of those who had died. A community prayer was read by all present as the benediction.


Left, Chanel Ledbetter lights candles in memory of those who died of AIDS; top right, Dr. Francis Kateh; bottom right, Pam Vernon and Chanel Ledbetter.


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