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Dr. Jasmin Chapman

Dr. Jasmin Chapman spoke to a crowd about health-care issues in Hinds County at Friday Forum this morning.

Dr. Jasmin Chapman spoke to a crowd about health-care issues in Hinds County at Friday Forum this morning. Jacob Fuller

Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center has served Mississippians since 1970, when it was established to help develop comprehensive health-care for poor and underserved communities in the Jackson area.

The center now has locations in Hinds, Warren and Copiah counties and is looking to expand wherever they are needed. At this morning's Friday Forum the center's CEO, Dr. Jasmin Chapman, said that Jackson is in need.

"The health disparities in Mississippi are some of the worst in the nation. And just because you're in Jackson, you might think that we're doing a lot better, but we're still not doing very well," Chapman said. "It's sort of sad, because if you live in Jackson, your lifespan expectancy is almost six years lower than if you lived in Madison or other places."

The best way to change the disparity, she said, is to get people out of poverty. But while there are people in poverty, Jackson-Hinds CHC will provide them with healthcare they are not able to get elsewhere.

"We see everybody. You can have insurance, you can be on Medicaid, you can be on Medicare or you don't have to have any money to see us," Chapman said.

She stressed that preventive medicine can be the most important form of health-care, especially to help lengthen the life expectancy of impoverished people.

Jackson-Hinds CHC works closely with many area schools to provide preventive medical care to students and teachers. Chapman said the staff has found a lot of undiagnosed, untreated depression and STDs in Jackson-area high schools.

"The schools won't let us teach birth control in the school. It's abstinence only," Chapman said. "But I hope someone will tell them when you've got a third of your high school seniors having babies, it might not be working. So you need to let us do more."

John Perkins, civil-rights leader and founder of the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation and Development, said Chapman and Jackson-Hinds CHC helped break down barriers and create the model that is followed by community health centers across the United States today.

"We took away the religious prejudice that was originally a part of and hindered the development of these health centers," Perkins said.

"We need to let people know the kind of pioneers that we have in Jackson."

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