Mississippi Center for Health Workforce (MCHW):

      The Mississippi AHEC, Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center, and Mississippi State Department of Health– Office of Primary Care / Health Policy & Research Center are working collaboratively to develop a statewide database for  health care professionals, focusing on what draws physicians and dentists to practice in Mississippi, what keeps them in the State, why they leave the State.

       The reports generated will be useful for developing strategies to retain high-quality health professionals, recruit health care professionals, decrease shortages of health care professionals, and decrease shortages in MUAs and HPSAs. This initiative was developed after members of the coalition received numerous requests for analyzed data that was not available. We expect to gather sufficient support to begin operations at the beginning of the next academic year.

Lutheran Medical Center –

Advance Education in General Dentistry Residency Program:

     The AHECs continue to partner with CHCs for the provision of continuing education activities to health care professionals as well as student placement opportunities. Recently, the AHEC, working with the Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, NY, the UMC School of Dentistry, the Greater Meridian Health Clinic, and the Mississippi Primary Health Care Association (MPHCA) has developed a CHC based Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency. This program resulted from the unique community health center based education model developed by Dr. Neal Demby at the Lutheran Medical Center. This program breaks traditional boundaries and addresses the maldistribution and disparities in our state.We expect the first resident to arrive at the Greater Meridian Health Clinic in September, 2008.

Youth Health Service Corp - YHSC:

   YHSC is a program designed to recruit high school students into a career in health care.  Students receive didactic training and real life experiences when they are placed as volunteers at sites that provide health care services to vulnerable populations.  While serving as volunteers, students are exposed to the real world of health care where they work with health care professionals who serve as role models and mentors.  The Mississippi YHSC mobilizes the next generation of  health care practitioners, while still in high school, to contribute in a meaningful way to the delivery of health care in their community.  One of the goals of the Mississippi YHSC is to provide disadvantaged students future goals to help them avoid many of the pitfalls that prevent youth from reaching their full potential including poor school achievement, teen pregnancy, drug use, etc.  Students make a difference in their communities while they simultaneously make a difference in their own life’s trajectory.   The YHSC program was successful during the 2007 fiscal year in the Greenville Public School District (Delta AHEC).  The Meridian Public School District's Ross Collins Career Center(East Central AHEC)began its program at the beginning of the school year in August 2007. 

The Youth Health Service Corps program is partially funded by a Learn and Serve Grant administered by the Connecticut AHEC and subcontracted to the Mississippi AHEC.

North Central AHEC's new location

Effective January 2, 2008, the North Central AHEC Center has relocated to the Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services Center in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where Jessica Hunt is center director.  Aurelia Jones-Taylor is Chief Executive Officer for Aaron E. Henry Community Health Services Center, Inc.

Announcing our newest AHEC Center

MS AHEC 's newest center is our North East Mississippi AHEC Center, located at Mississippi State University's Social Science Research Center in Starkville, Mississippi.  One focus of the North East AHEC Center will be on the Mississippi Center for Health Workforce.  Jeralynn(Lynne) Sittig Cossman , Associate Professor of Sociology at Mississippi State University, serves as Director, assisted by Caleb Butts.

For more NAO updates, click here: NAO E-NEWS

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