While Tyler is a medical hub for all of East Texas with options for high quality health care, that’s not the case for the more rural portions of the region. Carolyn Morales, Ph.D., is the associate dean for community engagement at the UT Tyler School of Medicine. She explains what UT Tyler and UT Health East Texas are doing to address the need, including details of a rural Health Fair coming up June 10.
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. Rural health care is an issue all across the country, and East Texas is no exception. There’s no easy fix, and the situation in Marion County, Texas, is an example of the need. Here to talk more about that need and what’s being done about it is UT Tyler’s School of Medicine Associate Dean [of Belonging and Community Engagement], Dr. Carolyn Morales. She’s our guest. Welcome.
Carolyn Morales: Thank you so much. Happy to be here.
Mike Landess: As of 2021, there were just over 9,600 residents in Marion County. The county seat is Jefferson, by the way. There’s one ambulance for the entire county, one nurse practitioner and one doctor who comes once a month. That’s jaw dropping for folks who may not realize how dire the situation is.
Carolyn Morales: It is concerning given the breadth of needs that exist in Marion County.
Mike Landess: Marion County is an example of a lot of counties across the state in terms of the needs for rural health care and the facilities and the resources that are available.
Carolyn Morales: It is, and you know, the School of Medicine is really establishing our roots and trying to get a sense of where we can partner with the community. What we’ve done essentially is create a Community Advisory Board, which I oversee, and we’ve invited stakeholders throughout East Texas primarily, many of which are situated here in Tyler. And they have umbrellas and connects throughout East Texas. And what we’ve done is we’ve organized this group is we’ve asked the community stakeholders, “What are the most pressing needs?” And in doing so, what they elevated, and it was fairly consistent to the top of the list, was mental health. So then the next question becomes, “To what degree, and where is the greatest need?” So we were very fortunate to partner with Prevention Resource Center, which is affiliated with the state, and they have data coordinators, which essentially assess where the greatest needs are. And it was based on a recent presentation they delivered to us that they very, very much clarified that Marion County and Red River, primarily in Region 4, are where the greatest needs lie.
Mike Landess: Now at this particular Health Fair, which is coming up on June 10, there are going to be a variety of services that’ll be available that day. Can you tell us about them?
Carolyn Morales: Certainly. We know we’re gonna be having some vision screenings, blood pressure checks, glucose tests, vaccinations, BMI checks, cholesterol screenings. There’ll be an opportunity for people to ask medical questions, medication questions, rather. And so we’re trying to give them an opportunity to be able to get some initial screenings and to determine what needs they might have, and potentially direct them to resources as well.
Mike Landess: Is this Health Fair that you’re doing the beginning of a number of them that you’ll do over the years?
Carolyn Morales: The hope is that this will not be a one-and-done, that there will be other opportunities to continue to bring attention to the needs that exist not only in Marion, but other parts of East Texas. So, as we assess where those needs are, then we will need to work with our Community Advisory Board, and of course, the leadership of Dean (Brig) Willis at the School of Medicine to determine where we go next and in what ways we partner.
Mike Landess: When you finish with this particular project on June 10, is it possible to reverse-engineer what you’ve learned and go back and find ways to get that information out to other communities in East Texas where they might come up with their own grassroots efforts?
Carolyn Morales: We will be looking at other grassroots organizations that are developing or have a need to address medical gaps in their communities, and looking at ways we could potentially partner with them. So we’re at the early initial phases of figuring out where do we go and where is the greatest need. And so I think that conversation is ongoing, and I suspect it will take us to other places in East Texas because there are needs throughout Regions 4 and 5.
Mike Landess: UT Tyler President Dr. Kirk Calhoun was our guest recently, and he said the hope with the new medical school is that by recruiting students from East Texas and having their tuition paid for all 4 years, that some will choose rural health care because they can afford to do that.
Carolyn Morales: Correct. And I think there are other layers as well to that. The goal is to have them do their residencies in East Texas, so they would. We know that the research shows that when med schools, students graduate med school, they are in, many are in, significant debt. So their first jobs are guided by “How do I get that debt down?” Having them go through our med school tuition-free is gonna be a game changer for them in terms of their abilities to have options, right? And then you add to that, they will have, we’ve selected individuals who have a connect to East Texas. They will be here. And then they will also potentially do their residencies here. So, I think we are trying to cover all our bases to make sure that we have them working in the community. They understand the needs in the community, and they feel connected to the community, so that they can recognize that there are opportunities, wonderful opportunities, here in East Texas for them.
Mike Landess: The Health Fair seems like a good start. What other kinds of programs are being discussed as to what you might do in the future? We talked about having the telehealth, having that expand with, of course, the help of a broadband expansion. What else?
Carolyn Morales: We are looking at essentially right now working on generating a report as the next step from the data that we’ve gathered. And so, we will continue to work through the lovely list that the Community Advisory Board has developed. We know that mental health, there are a lot of mental health needs throughout. We’re hoping that report will unpack where the next layers of work will happen. The Community Advisory Board has said they really want to focus on youth mental health so that we know there are organizations doing work in that area. So we will then begin to explore and develop relationships with them and figure out what gaps and what opportunities are there for us to partner with each other to address the disparities we know exist.
Mike Landess: When you see the issues, do you ever feel discouraged?
Carolyn Morales: My family moved to Tyler in the mid-80s, so this has always been home. I’ve been away and come back recently. I arrived back last August. But this was a little bit of a surprise to see the scale of need in some of the outlying areas. And so I think it’s an opportunity. I don’t get discouraged because I think that these are opportunities for us to do better. And one of the things I can say that our family has experienced being in Tyler for so many years is that this is a community that cares, that is compassionate, that bands together to find ways to help each other. And so working in the School of Medicine, I just see that as another extension of that philosophy that drives us, the residents of Tyler. And so I’m looking forward to seeing how we can partner with a lot of those caring hearts that exist here in East Texas to see what we can do to move the needle. And that for me, excites me, candidly, because I think that maybe other places those opportunities necessarily wouldn’t be present, but I think that’s part of who we are. And so it, it allows us to, I think, have the opportunity to do better. And so I think time will be, will tell how far and what kind of impact we have. But I think we have the resources at play and the timing is right. So I’m optimistic about where that will take us.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been UT Tyler’s School of Medicine Associate Dean, Dr. Carolyn Morales. To learn more about the upcoming Health Fair in Marion County, you’ll find a link on our website, KVUT.org. There you’ll also find this interview to hear again or to share. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
