Contact: David Gross

(l-r) Alfred T. Mays, Johnson & Johnson’s vice president of corporate contributions and community relations, UK Center for Rural Health Director Judy Owens, Fran Feltner, director of the Center’s lay health workers division, and Rick Martinez, Johnson & Johnson’s medical director

Plans call for the Leslie County project to be operational beginning July 1. It will be located at 2278 Highway 421, Apartment 24 in Hyden, within the office of Kentucky Homeplace, another Center for Rural Health lay health worker program.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 12, 2005) -- The University of Kentucky Center for Rural Health has been awarded the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Leadership Award for Rural Health along with a $50,000 grant.

The Center, based in Hazard, was presented the award during a May 3 ceremony at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. Through a combination of grant funding and support resources, the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program aids outstanding community-based organizations that assist medically underserved populations.

Grant funds will be used to expand upon the groundwork laid by the Southeast Kentucky Community Access Program (SKYCAP), a lay health worker program administered by the Center from 2000 to 2004. In those four years of activity, SKYCAP provided case management services to more than 8,600 underserved residents of Harlan, Knott, Leslie, and Perry counties and referral services to more than 4,800 others, resulting in a 26 percent decline in the number of hospitalizations reported by its clients.

“Once again SKYCAP has proven that wonderful community partners and dedicated lay people can transform some of the toughest problems in health care,” said Judy Owens, director of the Center for Rural Health. “We are so thankful to Johnson & Johnson for this high honor.”

Though SKYCAP grant funding expired in August 2004, many of its objectives are still being carried out in Harlan and Perry counties through lay workers – referred to as family health navigators – funded by Appalachian Regional Healthcare. The Johnson & Johnson grant will allow the Center to return case management services to Leslie County, where nearly 19 percent of the population does not have health insurance.

The mission of the project will be to provide access to medical, social, environmental and education services that will enable newly diagnosed diabetics to be self-sufficient in the treatment of their illness. Project goals include a reduction in clients’ hospital admissions and emergency room visits; acceptable client blood sugar levels; and increased knowledge of risk factors, proper diet and exercise.

“This award pays tribute to the work of many community partners and family health navigators, truly proving that by working together we can reach the uninsured and underserved in our communities,” said Fran Feltner, director of the Center for Rural Health’s lay health workers division.

Plans call for the Leslie County project to be operational beginning July 1. It will be located at 2278 Highway 421, Apartment 24 in Hyden, within the office of Kentucky Homeplace, another Center for Rural Health lay health worker program.