V. Hugh Lewis
Jefferson Jimplecute
The Marion County Resource Coalition held their first meeting Monday at St. Paul UMC, to start the process of gathering and identifying health related resources for Marion County.
Initiated by a grant to Texas DSHS and covering several counties, the multi-year grant is designed to help establish a self-sustaining program in each county.
Lesia Manning and Lesley Taylor, both of DSHS, have spent the first year of the grant gathering information and doing needs assessments. The second year, which ends May 31, 2024, is focused on helping counties establish the program and identify available resources.
Kimlyn Williams-Taylor, of Wellness Pointe, presented a variety of programs offered by WP. She said that while the closest medical location is in Longview, but the Marshall office has a variety of social services programs available. Those programs include substance abuse, and community based services such as after school programs, which will come to Jefferson. She outlined several programs currently available including a positive action or self-concept program, “too good for drugs”, and whole family program to strengthen families. They are currently working with JISD through the ACES program. She said they are also willing to be at health fairs, or community resources fairs.
Greg Lamay of UT-Tyler Health Science Center, provided an outline of programs available to Marion County through both the academic side as well as the community outreach side of UTTHSC. Lamay said he was already reaching out to the nursing and pharmacy schools to see what can be offered through their programs. On the community side, he said there are several lifestyle change programs which are available to assist residents in identifying and monitoring various medical conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. Those programs are focused on prevention and include free community workshops all taught by licensed professionals. Some programs are as short as 12 weeks but can also go up to a full year. He indicated these programs are very popular and are already booked through the spring. The next available time to offer these courses in the county would be in May.
UT-Tyler also said they will begin putting together their needs assessment survey so the group can distribute it county wide. From the results they can better focus the available programs.
Mental Health is a concern according to DSHS, but the resources in Marion County are limited. Currently Community HealthCore provides these services for the Marion County Jail, but to what extent was unknown. The group also expressed concerns over the difficulty in reaching Community HealthCore. It was also identified that NetHealth also offers these services if contracts are established.
JPD Chief Tino Perez said all of his officers have had the adult focused mental first aid training and hopes to complete the youth focused training in the near future.
Lamay also said that Texas A&M AgriLife Extension offices offer the training programs.
Peggy Walker brought up her planned Community Resources Fair currently scheduled for June 11 at the Jefferson Community Center on Haywood Street. Rev. Ray Walker of St Paul UMC, said he would combine his planned program with Walker’s. DSHS, UTTHSC also said they would provide booths at the fair.
Sherrie Houff, DSHS Public Health & Prevention Specialists for Cass and Marion Counties, said the recent face-to-face information meetings about COVID worked very well for providing information to residents and she would assist as needed for additional opportunities.
The group ended the meeting by formally creating an organization and electing officers to be primary contacts moving forward. Chair of the group will be Will Thomas; Vice Chair is Rev. Walker; Secretary/Treasurer Pam Smith; and DSHS liason Houff.
The group plans to meet again from 11:30a-1p February 27 at St. Paul UMC.