Lee County Cooperative Clinic: Women in the Delta

Grant Award Amount: $25,104

Institution: Lee County Cooperative Clinic Project Director: Denise Purnell Address: 530 W. Atkins Blvd. Marianna, AR 72360 Phone: (870) 295-5225 Email: denisepwalker@sbcglobal.net Type of Grant: Education, Screening Counties Served: Lee, Phillips, St. Francis

Lee County Cooperative Clinic, a health clinic located in the Arkansas Delta, proposes the project, “Women of the Delta”: Reducing Cancer-Related Health Disparities among all Women in a Rural Area. Our goal is to work with community partners to reduce breast cancer health disparities. We aim to build an infrastructure of community partners to (1) promote cancer awareness and education efforts; (2) establish a system to recruit women to participate in cancer prevention projects; and (3) develop community-based prevention projects to address specific cancer disparities.

The residents of our service area confront financial, structural, and personal barriers that limit them in accessing health care. Personal barriers include cultural differences, language barriers, not knowing what to do or when to seek care, concerns about confidentiality or discrimination, lack of education, and lack of transportation. LCCC faces a challenging health care environment and a population with numerous indicators of needs. More than half the population of the area (55.8%) have incomes below 200% of poverty.

Several major manufacturing employers in the area have closed their plants. The loss of these jobs, thrust a significant number of families into the ranks of the uninsured. An additional factor affecting access and utilization of primary health care is the high % of households who don’t have access to a vehicle. While a rural transit provides limited service in parts of the area, services are generally limited to one or two round trips per day and require riders to schedule their rides ahead of time. Similarly, state Medicaid transportation requires riders to schedule their trip 24 hours prior to the desired travel time. Also, due to lack of education and poor understanding, residents are less informed about various health prevention and treatment in the area.