Successful rural health partnerships in Fairfield, Lancaster and Marlboro counties, have led to the development of a number of outreach programs to relieve health disparities for South Carolina’s rural, rural African-American and low-income residents, including:

• A 15-year training program for students in rural and family medicine centers to encourage choosing a rural practice location;
• An extensive medications assistance program that included services during the first two years of the Medicare Part D drug benefit program;
• A seven-year health literacy program with its rural partners to improve provider-patient communications and patient understanding and ability to act on health instructions;
• A vascular disease prevention program that uses screening and education to reduce health disparities in African-American populations with some of the highest rates of stroke in the country;
• Implementation of diabetes education and weight management programs over the past 10 years in a rural under-served county with a majority African-American population;
• A community network program to stimulate communities to initiate programs to reduce overweight and obesity; and
• A program to enhance skills of home health certified nurse aides to improve the ability of their clients to remain at home.