ARKANSAS, USA — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is working to combat health disparities in medically underserved and rural parts across the state through a new institute led by founding director Dr. Pearl McElfish.
"Arkansas has the worst maternal mortality rate in the entire nation. We're also fourth worst in all maternal health outcomes, and we have poor infant outcomes so high rates of pre-term birth and low birth weight babies. On the other side, chronic diseases, things like diabetes and hypertension, are much higher than the national average," Dr. McElfish said.
The institute is based in the heart of Springdale but will have offices in cities across the state such as Fort Smith, Batesville, El Dorado, Helena-West Helena, Lake Village, Jonesboro, Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Magnolia, and Texarkana.
Dr. McElfish says it's supposed to fill the gap and provide more access to health care services.
"The heart of the Institute for Community Health Innovation is to be in the community, and so it's really important that it be grassroots leaders from the community working on community health innovation, it's critical that it not be inside an ivory tower institution, but that it be very accessible to the community," she said.
UAMS partners with several community organizations including the Squire Jehegan Outreach Center in Fayetteville. Recently they've implemented food lockers where people in need can get healthy food at their convenience.
"So one of the concerns is that if people are working one or two jobs, or they're working odd hours, they may not be able to go to a food pantry to get food," Dr. McElfish said.
Monique Jones, the director of Outreach and Community Engagement for the Squire Center, says the organization has worked with UAMS for years on multiple health initiatives.
"The food lockers are four different panels, they could be ambient, refrigerated, frozen, or we can turn it to heated," Jones said. "We also partnered with UAMS on tackling diabetes because we know that African Americans tend to get diagnosed with diabetes at a higher rate than any other ethnic population. But, the one thing that I was glad about is we were able to address all ethnic backgrounds."
While this initiative is focused on helping rural areas, McElfish says it also aims to help underserved groups in larger cities.
"It is often Black, Hispanic, and Marshallese community members or any racially and ethnically [minority] members that may not have access to the same resources," McElfish said. "And so this is really a statewide initiative focused on making sure all our Arkansans are able to live a healthy life, and whoever is being left out of that we want to make sure that we are helping fill that gap."
The institute will officially kick off on Friday, March 1.
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