[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 79 (Monday, June 2, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1089-E1090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. NATHAN DEAL

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, June 2, 2003

  Mr. DEAL of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, we have just concluded a three-year 
project funded by HRSA (93-912A). This program was implemented under 
the umbrella of Project Partnership, the community outreach arm of the 
Graduate Program in Physical Therapy at North Georgia College and State 
University. The project was directed by Ms. Charlene L. Hudson and Dr. 
Lynda D. Woodruff. Our local, state and federal legislators supported 
this competitive grant.
  The purpose of this grant was to bring a variety of services, 
adaptive equipment and healthcare resources to the population of rural 
elderly in three contiguous counties: Lumpkin, Hall and Dawson. 
Healthcare services for the vast majority of these citizens are 
severely challenged, poorly funded, and extraordinarily inaccessible. 
The physical therapy faculty, the nurse practitioner faculty, and more 
than 100 graduate students in these two programs joined forces to 
provide in excess of 5,000 formal visits/interactions to rural citizens 
whose quality of health and quality of life have been compromised.
  The project was able to supercede its initial goals, standards for 
operations, and complete programmatic activities fluidly. However, the 
majority of our requests forwarded to us were far beyond the scope of 
our project. We somewhat anticipated this phenomenon as a result of our 
community needs assessment which occurred during the planning phase for 
the grant application. What we did not anticipate

[[Page E1090]]

was a decline in the sparse services available. For example, our three 
counties have lost home modification resources, rural transportation, 
and a large number of Medicaid friendly clinical services. This simply 
means that there is still a severe level of unmet need in our rural 
region.
  We have found a few sources to minimally sustain this project. The 
network which we initiated in 1995 has matured today to include the 
State Office of Rural Health, federally funded community health center, 
State Area Agency on Aging, 9th District Social Services and our 
University. We are confident that this model is unique and we will 
strive to share our findings through HRSA publications.

                          ____________________