HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. ? for hundreds of years, life along the Mississippi River has always been hard. Just ask anyone who has spent most of their life here and they will tell you.Recurring floods, tornadoes and periods of drought coupled with major losses of industries over the last four decades have not helped.the result of these events is starkly evident in an area of Arkansas running from just west of Memphis down to the Louisiana border.known as the Arkansas Delta, this region of the United States is one of the poorest in the nation. With poverty well above the national average, unemployment, high mortality, and staggering high school dropout rates, it is an area within our nation that is in desperate need of large-scale assistance.a team of three hundred Army Reserve medical and civil affairs soldiers along with medics from the Navy Reserve and Air Force Reserve are spending 11 days in the region to help make some changes in the lives of residents who call this area home.Taskforce Razorback Arkansas Medical 2011 Innovative Readiness Training mission, set up medical clinics in Eudora, Helena-West Helena, Marianna, McGehee and Wynne, Ark., June 8-18 providing services that are sorely needed. IRT missions are a Department of Defense initiative to serve residents within our own borders who may not have the monetary means to receive services to improve their quality of life. By the end of the 11-day mission, all five clinics expect to serve as many as 5,000 residents.Overworked physicians?We have four doctors, a dentist and an optometrist that comes a half day a week,? said Jack may, mayor of McGehee, a town of about 4,200 residents. McGehee is one of the luckier towns because they do have a small hospital. but may said it isn?t enough.?Our doctors are overworked. they can?t keep up with the medical needs of the surrounding area,? he said.may said it is the 18-65 year-olds that can?t afford to be treated by physicians since they are not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid. ?Those are the people that delay medical, dental and optometry treatment. they just don?t have the money to pay for those services,? he said. ?I just can?t imagine a person being ill or with a terrible toothache and just have to settle for it. Then those cases that are delayed become a greater or even a life-threatening problem later on.?Helping those who can?t help themselvesAbout 110 miles to the north is the town of Marianna with a population of nearly 4,000 residents.Early one Sunday morning, Shelia Brown, a 49 year-old divorced mother of two grown children, sits in the waiting area at the Marianna Civic Center, a converted Arkansas National Guard armory long since inactivated. she has a myriad of ailments to include diabetic neuropathy, thyroid problems, sciatic nerve damage and she is also in need of dental work.?I have no income, and of course, I have no insurance. so everything has to be paid up front or no one will see you,? Brown said. ?I had three cavities filled here on Wednesday and they?re going to try and do three or four more for me today. having those three teeth filled saved me $280 dollars that I didn?t have,? she said.over in Helena-West Helena, a crowd of over 200 residents waited in the hot Arkansas summer sun before the doors even opened on the first day of the clinic. ?The Delta has been referred to as a Third World country and I really think we are in a lot of ways because the death rates and poverty rates are so high,? said Becky Hall, director of the Delta Area Health Education Center.?The military are just wonderful people and you can tell they have a good heart. I think this is such a wonderful program for the military to be providing here when we have so many needs,? Hall said.Soldiers from across the Army Reserve traveled from around the nation for this mission, even as far away as Maine.for Spc. Grace McKenzie, a combat medic with the 399th Combat Surgical Hospital in Auburn, Maine, this mission was an eye-opening experience for her and her fellow soldiers who worked at the clinic in Eudora, Ark., located eight miles from the Louisiana border.?This is probably the best annual training so far,? McKenzie said. ?Clinically, this has been more appropriate for us. Getting into the clinical setting has been good for me to be able to work with the doctors, nurses, triage ? basically every part of the hospital setting that I?ll be involved in some day.?McKenzie believes the interaction with real people with real problems from different cultures is a worthwhile experience.?The poverty level down here is different. the education level is different. the way people eat is different. you wouldn?t believe the way people eat makes such a big difference in their health,? she said. ?In the South, it?s very traditional and customary down here and they stick to that. We?re seeing different health problems than you would see in the North.?McKenzie said the effects of the hard economic times were readily evident in many of the patients they had seen in Eudora.?Most of our patients have not seen doctors in a long time. one of them hadn?t seen a doctor in about 15 years,? McKenzie added. Simple procedures such as prostate and gynecological exams and cardiovascular screenings fall by the wayside she said.?It?s very basic stuff that you and I will probably get every year but these people don?t have access to [medical facilities], some of them don?t have cars, some of them don?t have the insurance or even the money.?Building relationshipsPat Audrisch, volunteer coordinator at the Marianna clinic, said this IRT mission was two years in the making but the wait has been more than worthwhile. she, like leaders in all of the communities visited, would like to see the Army Reserve medical and civil affairs teams come back.?I really believe in building relationships,? Audrisch said. ?Even in Christian missionary work if you go back to the same place again and again, you?re not just building work, you?re building a relationship and then you build trust. Then you build way more ? you build a community.?She said all the soldiers have been ?splendid. as far as I can tell they?re neighbors. They?ve treated you like you?re their neighbor or their friend or their family member.?Audirsch said, the soldiers were briefed ahead of time of the economic conditions in the area and they have all been sensitive to those issues when dealing with the residents.for Sgt. Blake Cates, a civil affairs specialist with the 431st Civil Affairs Battalion at Camp Robinson, Ark., the IRT mission was a unique experience.?This is real world mission and the first time we?ve done a mission like this in our own country,? Cates said.He said there was a significant amount of coordination with local and state government officials and agencies in the months leading up to the start of the mission.Cates added that while the primary mission is medical, the 34-person Civil Affairs team is working with each of the five communities to act as a buffer between the patients and the physicians.?We just make sure that everything is running smoothly so the doctors can concentrate on what they need to do.?Down but not outWhile outsiders may look at the region with unbelieving eyes, those who have lived here for most of their lives, see the potential of what this area can become.?We have a different spirit,? may, the mayor of McGehee said. ?We?re not going to lay down and let this town dry up and blow away.?The people of the region are a hearty bunch. they toil in their fields and in what few industries there are to provide for their families as best as they can.you would be hard pressed to find one of them who would want you to feel sorry for them. the people of the Arkansas Delta are too proud for that.
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