Public Health Official: Extension Health Model as Relevant as Ever
Writing her weekly report in June 1920, Tuskegee Institute public health educator Uva Hester related a horrifying scene involving one of her clients — a young black woman and tuberculosis sufferer bedridden for more than a year, suffering from openings in her chest and side as well as a bedsore the size of a hand on her lower back.
“No effort was made to protect the patient from the flies that swarmed around her,” Hester soberly related.
It was a sight that almost defied description but one that was all too common among southerners, particularly impoverished black southerners in early 20th century Alabama.
And Hester, along with a team of poorly funded but determined Tuskegee Institute Extension educators, led by an equally determined and resourceful agent named Thomas Campbell, vowed to do something about it. Working with the state’s health department, Tuskegee health educators fanned out across the state, not only to care for the chronically ill but also to show their families and neighbors what they could do to prevent the spread of these deadly conditions.
And this grassroots Extension effort worked — so well, in fact, that other states adopted it. And almost a 100 years later, one state health official believes this grassroots model, despite its age, is as valuable today as it was then. In fact, he believes it will go a long way toward helping him and other health professionals rid Alabama of yet another health scourge — the spiking rates of childhood obesity, which threaten an upcoming generation of Alabamians, particularly black Alabamians.
Speaking to the 7th Annual Diabetes and Obesity Conference in Prattville yesterday, Dr. Jack Hataway said Alabama Cooperative Extension System educators will play a big role helping his agency, the Alabama Department of Health. How? Much like their Tuskegee predecessors, grassroots Extension educators will play a vital role showing Alabamians practical ways they can prevent obesity or care for the conditions associated with it, such as type II diabetes, he says.
Hataway, medical director of the department’s Division of Chronic Disease Prevention, is especially excited about the practical programs his department has developed recently to address obesity and its related conditions — programs that educators from several state agencies now can share with their clients to “make a difference in their lives.”
It’s a far cry from only a couple years ago, Hataway says, when educators throughout the state lacked the sorts of practical programs designed to show children and their parents not only how to prevent obesity but also how to manage chronic diseases, such as type II diabetes, which often accompany it.
“Now, it’s a major difference to have other major organizations getting interested, participating and bringing their own program contributions,” Hataway says.
And the sooner this grassroots change takes hold, the better, he says. As Hataway and other health professional stress, some young people face the real risk of being too far advanced in obesity or related conditions once help arrives — a grim reality that presents them with equally grim choices as they grow into young adulthood.
“How do they get health insurance and how to they have a good work life when they become young adults?” Hataway asks.
Hataway believes Extension agents are especially well suited to provide this sort of education, particularly in empowering people to take charge of their own condition — as he describes it, self-care management.
This includes showing people suffering from obesity and also type II diabetes how to do a better job caring for themselves, managing their medications and communicating with doctors offices about their care.
But this sort of outreach requires community involvement, something only groups such as Extension and similar organizations can provide.
“That’s what we’re looking for — how to make more people healthier,” Hataway says. “And this is the way to do that.
“You’ve got to work through community groups. It’s hard to do it on a one-to-one basis.”
As director of the Chronic Disease and Disease and Prevention unit, Hataway oversees statewide educational programs aimed at preventing or controlling chronic diseases such as obesity and related conditions. He says partners, such as Alabama Extension, have and will continue to play a critical role in his agency’s efforts.
“We’re looking for the partners to do the work,” he says. “We have the expertise to bring the training to them, which they, in turn, can provide to large numbers of people.”
Posted by Jim Langcuster at April 3, 2008 03:54 PM