Photo By Tech. Sgt. Melissa Chatham | Henelor Bell, mayor of Hayneville, Ala., and Col. Jerry Arends, Innovative Readiness...... read more read more
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HAYNEVILLE, Ala. – Officials held a press conference here Monday to inform Alabama residents of an Innovative Readiness Training mission providing much needed services to local communities as part of Alabama Care 2012 scheduled for May 1-10 in Demopolis, Selma and here.
Bentley explained that this IRT has mutual benefits for both service members who need training and more than 5,000 residents who need medical services.
“Alabama residents may have received general care, but it is hard to receive specialty care in rural areas,” said Bentley. “That is why I am trying to encourage Alabama residents to get health care through the Alabama Care program.”
Alabama Care 2012 is a multiservice mission comprised of active duty, reserve, and National Guard members from Army, Navy and Air Force components. Service members worked together to set up field-operated medical facilities in the three medically underserved and economically-depressed communities of Selma, Demopolis and Hayneville. The primary focus of military medical personnel is to conduct deployment and readiness training while simultaneously providing free medical, dental, ophthalmology services to the community.
“We have more than 250 medical personnel eager to assist the communities in need of medical services while they are deployed here to Alabama,” said Arends. “For some members this is the first time that they’ve worked in a multiservice environment.”
The Alabama Care 2012 health care initiative is a premier world-class field training event for military forces. The mission provides significant, valuable and realistic training in a deployed environment.
“Military members focus on training their junior enlisted and officers, which assists them in gaining knowledge and enhances their skills in a deployed environment,” said Arends. “Some reservists don’t have the same [civilian] job as they do in the military and Alabama Care gives them the opportunity to train on their military job while working with real patients and special equipment, all while receiving specialty training that they otherwise could not receive back at their unit.”
There is a need for medical assistance in the Delta region of Alabama. Compared with national rates, deaths in the Delta region from circulatory diseases are 16 percent higher and deaths from cancer are 12 percent higher.
“Health care is very important,” said Bentley. “These are wonderful people that live here and we are going to do whatever we can to improve their lives.”
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 05.03.2012 19:27 |
| Story ID: | 87845 |
| Location: | HAYNEVILLE, AL, US |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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