Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Health Units Offer Plethora Of Services

Many services are offered by the Area IV office of County Health Units.

These services, according to Marsha Edwards, who works as a maternal and child nurse, include clinical services, family planning, WIC information, breast and cervical cancer control and breast care, among others.

Edwards, speaking to the Gurdon Rotary Club, said her duties include being a liaison with the Little Rock office and field staff.

One of the best known programs the health unit offers is WIC, which stands for Women, Infants, Children. Under this program, those in need are given food staples to survive, if they meet the criteria.

This federally funded program is for pregnant women, postpartum women and children to age five.

Edwards said the criteria is not solely based on income, but other categories as well. Those being considered must be at nutritional risk as well as being in the low income bracket.

Upon approval they are provided with vouchers for certain food items, including milk, juice and peanut butter.

This program, Edwards said, is valuable, has been studied and is proven to be well worth the money spent on it. The results of the program, she continued, are lowered medical costs and a greater birth weight for babies.

Health units also provide immunization for children, who are assessed to make sure they meet all requirements.

As of Sept. 1, 1997, the health units began a program on family planning. This is a five- year project for women of childbearing age and with an income not to exceed 133 percent of the poverty level.

It covers family planning for women without the financial means to do it for themselves, thereby helping prevent unwanted and unplanned pregnancies.

The program also includes some maternity services, but not in all counties.

For those women over the childbearing age, the health units offer breast and cervical programs, pap smears and mammograms. The idea here is to help prevent or detect certain types of cancers or other problems before they get out of control.

Edwards said health units do provide health screenings for children from birth to age 21.

One of the newest projects is part of a grant from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) out of Atlanta, GA.

This is an infant mortality review project, to see if any patterns develop in cases of infant death. About 300 infants die in Arkansas annually, she said, from birth to 12 months of age.

The idea of this program is to examine the medical data surrounding the infant's death, get it to a team of medical professionals, who then check it and see how the death could have been prevented.

This is a three-year grant.

Other services offered by health units, according to Edwards, include Sudden Infant Death Syndrom (SIDS), newborn screening, sickle cell screening, a safety seat program for children and blood lead screening.