The healthcare forum planned by SEARCH for Tuesday, June 4, in Spruce Pine will open with a complimentary breakfast, followed by an overview of the Access to Care report by Greensboro public health consultant Annika Pfaender. Thanks to support from The Samuel L. Phillips Family Foundation, there is no charge to attend though registration is requested at bit.ly/44zXarB. The event will be held at the Cross Street Commerce Center at 31 Cross Street, Spruce Pine, from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
The Access to Care report is divided into four age-specific sections and one on mental health. A panel of local experts, chosen for their expertise in a particular age group, will be discussing their section and inviting the public to share their thoughts, questions and opinions, with the expectation that some of the recommendations will lead to actions that can be undertaken by the community.
Representing the youngest group (ages 0-4) is Jennifer Simpson, Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Partnership for Children. A leader in her field, Simpson was recognized for her skills by being asked to add Avery County to the area covered by the Partnership, which now has offices in Newland and Burnsville and serves mothers and children in Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties.
Youths (ages 5-19) will be covered by Pana Columbus, Executive Director of THRIVE Appalachia, which also serves the three-county area. THRIVE creates connections, opportunities, and hands-on learning experiences for teens. After over a decade working with vulnerable youth in foster care, kinship care, and in minority communities, she created The Four Pathways to Prosperity: a model for identifying and cultivating the unique genius of every teen within a welcoming community of support.
Maxine McLaughlin will focus on the working adult group (ages 20-64). Maxine is the Health and Economic Opportunity Program Regional Director with Pisgah Legal Services. Previously she worked in Affordable Housing in multiple states. Using her degrees in Business Administration and Accounting, she also had experience doing accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation, and payroll. She is passionate about affordable housing and doing her part to help lift local, low-income families out of poverty. She is a native of Yancey County.
Senior Citizens (ages 65 and over) are the age group of Dr. Tom Kaluzynski, a physician who practiced internal medicine and geriatrics in Mitchell and Yancey from 1985 to 2006, then moved on to serve for 13 years as a physician staff member for the nonprofit medical business model of dementia care with the SECU Center for Memory Care Center in Asheville. He is a current SEARCH Board Member and past Board Chair.
Meghan Graham, the fifth panelist, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the Director of Behavioral Health at the Mountain Community Health Partnership (MCHP). Her area of expertise, behavioral health, is not limited to an age group though her professional focus is on children affected by trauma . A Mitchell County native, Meghan got her BA from Appalachian State University and her MA from Tulane University. Before returning to the mountains, she was employed at Duke University Hospitals.
The MC of this illustrious panel is Yancey County native Jamie McMahan, whose work has focused both on business development and healthcare policy in Western North Carolina, Prior to becoming Director of Business Development at MCHP, he was Executive Director of the Yancey County Development Commission. Health-related boards on which he currently serves are the Dogwood Health Trust and the Center for Rural Health Innovation.
The keynote speaker Annika Pfaender started in the field of public health as a research assistant at the North Carolina Institute for Public Health and in the past 20 years has worked on a number of community health assessment projects. She also earned an MFA in Theatre for Youth from UNCG and subsequently has divided her time between arts education and data collection, analysis and presentation. She has conducted health assessments in many counties across North Carolina, especially in rural North Carolina. The Access to Care report, which Pfaender wrote, was the culmination of an 18-month study by the WNC Health Network. Mitchell County Commissioners, the AMY Wellness Foundation, and The Fund for Mitchell County all helped SEARCH in funding the project and disseminating the results to groups throughout the two counties.
For more information about the forum, please go to the SEARCH website www.searchwnc.org or send an email to searchwnc@gmail.com.
