This morning at the Memphis Academy of Health Science, Le Bonheur’s Community Outreach mobile health division launched a new partnership with The Children’s Health Fund to deliver comprehensive and coordinated, intensive primary care to children and families who do not have ready access to high quality health care on a continuous basis.

The Memphis Regional Children’s Health Project provides services to children living in medically underserved neighborhoods throughout Memphis and rural West Tennessee by bringing care directly to the children. Children and families in these communities have histories of chronic asthma, diabetes, obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood lead levels and teen pregnancy. Residents have limited access to medical care despite their proximity to a hospital system, due to a lack of transportation, lack of health insurance or limited knowledge of available resources.

“We hope to help families learn the importance of having an ongoing relationship with a primary care provider who knows their children. In this relationship, families learn to trust and communicate with the provider as an active participant in their children’s health,” Sharyn Thompson, director of Community Health.

Through The Children’s Health Fund (CHF)’s National Network of 21 Children’s Health Projects, innovative medical, dental and mobile health units and community-based clinics provide medically under-served children and families with essential health care services. Funding from CHF will provide a medical director for the Memphis Regional Children’s Health Project, as well as networking opportunities, technical assistance and access to best practices.

“In Memphis, and its surrounding communities many children are not getting the basic health care they need,” said Irwin Redlener, MD, co-founder and president of The Children’s Health Fund. “Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center is one of the nation’s premier children’s hospitals, and we very much look forward to working with them on these challenges. We welcome the Memphis Regional Children’s Health Project to our National Network of 21 projects and are pleased to support and enhance its work on behalf of at-risk children. Memphis Regional, in collaboration with CHF’s Arkansas and Mississippi-Clarksdale Children’s Health Projects, will create a ‘new regional partnership’ and result in an improved coordination of pediatric health care in the Delta region.”

This new program adds another dimension to Le Bonheur’s mobile health program. In addition to providing health screenings throughout West Tennessee, the “Le Bonheur On the Move” mobile unit will follow a medical home model which allows for more comprehensive services. On average, about 150 children will be seen each month. 

The mobile unit will visit five communities twice a month. These include:

• • Seek For The Old Path Home
    1169 Linden Ave
    Memphis, TN 38104
    
  • Memphis Academy of Health Sciences
    3925 Chelsea Extended
    Memphis, TN 38108
    
  • Iglesia Bautista Cristo Rey
    1458 E. Main Street
    Brownsville, TN 38012|
    
  • Telamon Migrant Head Start
    151 Conley Road
    Alamo, TN 38001
    
  • Elcanaan Baptist Church
    226 Jackson Ave
    Whiteville, TN 38075

This model of care will allow the pediatrician, nurse practitioner and registered nurse to spend more time with families providing health education and training in addition to primary care services. The family-centered approach will address the needs of the family rather than just the identified child. The unit will provide comprehensive primary care in order to decrease emergency room visits and assist families in learning the value of having a primary care provider.

About Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center:
Founded in 1952, Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center is the Mid-South’s first and only comprehensive pediatric medical facility. Every year Le Bonheur treats almost 140,000 children from 47 states and many countries. Le Bonheur is home to one of the nation’s 10 busiest pediatric emergency departments and hosts one of the largest pediatric surgical brain tumor programs. Le Bonheur is currently in the midst of a fundraising campaign to build a new state-of-the art hospital. The $327-million facility is scheduled to open in 2010 and will double the space for patient care, research and teaching. For more information, please call (901) 287-6030 or click here.

About The Children’s Health Fund:
Founded in 1987 by pediatrician/child advocate Irwin Redlener, MD, and singer/songwriter Paul Simon, The Children’s Health Fund (CHF) works nationally to develop health care programs for the most medically underserved population – homeless and disadvantaged children. CHF’s 21 pediatric programs have provided essential primary care services in more than one million patient visits.

Soon after Hurricane Katrina devastated thousands of miles of the Gulf Coast, The Children’s Health Fund responded to the urgent public health needs by establishing Operation Assist, a collaboration with the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

For more information visit www.childrenshealthfund.org.

About the Memphis Academy of Health Science:
Memphis Academy of Health Sciences Middle School is a tuition-free public charter school that provides a high-quality education through a year-round academic program focused on the whole child. The school’s rich curriculum in math, science and literacy prepares students for the academic rigors of high school and beyond and introduces them to challenging and fulfilling careers in the health sciences. Students are expected to be active learners, engaged in real-life applications of their knowledge and skills. Sponsored by 100 Black Memphis of Memphis, Inc., MAHS also has community partners including Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center.