With a grant from the Duke Endowment, UNC School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Physical Rehabilitation, Southeastern Regional Medical Center and Native Angels Homecare and Hospice Agency, which has an office in Laurinburg. are preparing to wage a comprehensive war in the heart of the stroke belt.
On June 18 at noon in the Angel Exchange Building, there will be open meeting for community leaders interested in learning more about the program -STAR or Stroke Telemedicine Access Recovery.
Angel Exchange is located in COMtech Business Park off N.C. 711 in Pembroke and is the headquarters of Native Angels.
The STAR Program, led by UNC researchers, will provide improved service to stroke survivors who will not have to leave Robeson County to receive consultation and treatment.
Enrolled stroke patients will have a UNC medial team consultation via video conference while receiving acute care at SRMC. The UNC team will follow up at the one and three month marks at Native Angels.
“If you, your loved one or a friend has had a stroke, you know the toll it takes on families,” said Bobbie Jacobs-Ghaffar, director of Native Angels. “The state is number eight for the most strokes in the country.
“Families can’t do it alone; they need health resources,” Ghaffar said. “These health resources are very limited and without these resources, stroke survivors recover very slowly and sometimes don’t totally recover.
The STAR Program aims to help stroke survivors:
· Regain their physical function;
· Improve their physical health;
· Prevent future strokes; and
· Make it easier on supportive families.
Each member of this collaborative effort is a caring professional committed to the effort to reduce the rates of stroke in North Carolina:
· Dr. Patricia C. Gregory, M.D. – Team Leader, UNC Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
· Dr. Ana Felix, M.D. – UNC Department of Neurology
· Dr. Sharon W. Williams, Ph.D. – UNC Department of Allied Health
· Cynthia McArthur-Kearney, R.N., M.S.N. – SRMC site supervisor
· Teresa Barnes – SRMC vice president for Patient Care Services
· Bobbie Jacobs-Ghaffar – Native Angels, owner/director
· Julia Shaw-Kokot – UNC Health Sciences Library (technical support)
· Tom Cox – UNC Health Sciences Library (technical support)
“There are nearly 900 people that will directly benefit from the STAR Program, including 200 stroke survivors in need of health services,” Jacobs-Ghaffar said. “Not only will they benefit but so will families, health care providers and community supporters. We expect that 85 percent of the enrolled stroke survivors will achieve successful results."
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