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| Vol. 22, No. 3 |
| February 15, 2000 |
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Coastal Bend Health Education Center Part ofA&M HealthSystem
The Coastal Bend Health Education Center (CBHEC), a joint effort of The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Del Mar College, Coastal Bend College and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and Extension Service, was announced at press conferences in Corpus Christi and Kingsville on January 31, 2000. The CBHEC will work to address the needs of Coastal Bend residents for better health professions education and career opportunities, health sciences research and health-related community outreach. The center is collaborating with Coastal Bend area health care institutions, including Driscoll Children's Hospital, Bay Area Hospital and others. The CBHEC has received initial funding from the Texas Legislature of approximately $2.6 million. The Coastal Bend area of Texas has been historically underserved, both in terms of health care and health education. The CBHEC is designed to provide for a multidisciplinary, community-oriented health education center which will ensure increased opportunities for health professions careers, and therefore a healthier tomorrow for residents of the Coastal Bend. To begin the CBHEC's efforts, five programs have been established, which will work under the direction of the CBHEC director. Leaders at the A&M System Health Science Center and other participating institutions are presently making a final decision on hiring the new director. The faculty leaders for the programs, will take on the detailed tasks of the CBHEC's mission. The five programs include:
The Nursing program provides a "seamless pipeline for nursing education," helping the local nursing workforce advance to baccalaureate degrees and other advanced training, developing a continuing education consortium for nursing by using area hospitals and colleges, and providing support for rural nursing through such means as portable computers which community nurses will be able to use to document their work and consult additional knowledge resources. The Nutrition/Dietetics program will focus, in the CBHEC's first year, on addressing the problems of obesity and Type II diabetes through initiatives in research, education and outreach, including informational contacts with area school districts' nutrition programs. The Partnership for Primary Care is building on an existing program at the A&M System Health Science Center College of Medicine, which provides qualified young people from medically underserved communities with guaranteed admission to medical school at the time they enter their undergraduate college institutions (members of the A&M System such as Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and Texas A&M University-Kingsville). The Partnership for Primary Care program is designed to encourage these students to return to their communities to practice medicine when they have completed their medical training. The Public Health/HERO Program will work to develop continuing education for local health care providers in the area of public health, develop graduate degree programs in public health at Coastal Bend area educational institutions, and provide community outreach in the region, especially in underserved communities. The program is focusing on the specific need for more health insurance for children, seeking to find ways to enroll more children in insurance programs and improve families' understanding of how to use health insurance benefits. The Communication Disorders program will, over the next two years, begin to address the need for better screening and evaluation of speech, language and hearing disorders in the Coastal Bend region, which has been identified by the Texas Department of Health as underserved in relation to this type of care. Through outreach efforts, including equipping the Health Education and Rural Outreach (HERO) mobile unit with necessary screening equipment, training initiatives targeting local teachers and allied-health professionals, and research into strategies for better meeting the needs of underserved Coastal Bend families, the program will support the Coastal Bend Health Education Center's overall mission. - Texas A&M University SystemHealth Science Center
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/02_15_00/page_11.html |