The Black Belt Health Council of the Community Care Network met in Selma Wednesday at the Performing Arts Center with Dr. Leon Davis, founder and CEO of the Network, and representatives of area health agencies. In his opening remarks, Davis included information on the expansion of Community Care’s mobile health program, which began as a local health ministry and grew into a full-fledged, countywide community outreach program.

Dr. Davis explained that CCN Care-A-Van is a new mobile medical unit to carry services into the Black Belt counties. A fully functional medical facility, Care-A-Van is complete with two examination rooms and a medical lab, which enables physicians to give complete medical screenings to those in rural areas where such access is limited. Counties involved are Barbour, Bullock, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Montgomery, Perry, Sumter and Wilcox.

An update was given on the Perry County meeting and the Black Belt Healthcare Summit as well as the governor’s Black Belt Healthcare Committee. Mrs. Mary Weidler of Alabama Arise spoke on Medicaid and how funding will impact public health.

Prior to the luncheon Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr., who had extended the invitation to Community Care Network to meet in Selma, greeted those present and spoke briefly of the possible impact on city minority health concerns.

Pamela Foster of the Export Project at Tuskegee University was guest speaker during the luncheon. Represented health communities present included SABRA Sanctuary, Central Alabama Health Consortium, Dallas County Extension Office, Wilcox County Extension Office, Selma Youth Development Center, Taylor Internal Medicine of Selma, First Media, LLC, University of Alabama Birmingham, Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission, Dallas County Health Department, Abundant Life Center and the City of Selma

Project EXPORT is supported by a $7.5 million grant awarded to Tuskegee University and the University of Alabama Institute for Rural Health Research from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Each year the two host conferences that draw hundreds of health care professionals, community leaders, policy makers and government officials, who come together to find solutions to health issues of Alabama’s rural citizens.

The Macon County Parish Nursing Program and the Montgomery-based Community Care Network are among those assisted by Project EXPORT. Both strive to reduce health disparities by linking the medical community and faith-based organizations to provide access to health care and promote healthy lifestyles.

Alabama’s Black Belt is a region of extreme poverty and inadequate health care. Its people die of cancer, heart disease and diabetes at higher rates than other Alabamians. Doctors and hospitals are scarce and medical attention often comes too late for the poor.

Project EXPORT, short for Excellence in Partnership for Community Outreach, was created through facilities on the campuses of both universities, blending public health methods and ethics with medical education and research in an effort to reduce health disparities in six areas:

cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease/hypertension, HIV/AIDS, infant mortality and immunizations.

University researchers and community leaders in the Black Belt are working together to help rural families learn more about diabetes and how to care for those with it; to educate them on proper diet and a healthy lifestyle; and to encourage health care professionals to practice in rural communities.

In the future, Dr. Davis says, two complimentary shuttles will be added to provide access to CCN Health Fairs, allowing quality health care to the underserved in both rural and low access urban areas.