Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hi everyone.

I'm Christina Jensen and I'm Johnny Atkinson.

This week on Somersworth we're focusing on health care.

Louisiana often ranks near the bottom for various health outcomes, but work is underway to change those metrics.

One of the areas in which Louisiana struggles is maternal health.

A 2026 report card gave the state a failing grade, highlighting high death rates.

Racial disparities and gaps in care.

Local hospitals and health leaders have launched several initiatives aimed at turning those grades around.

Louisiana's mothers.

And babies face some of the toughest health outcomes in the nation.

Last year, more than 7400 babies were born prematurely, giving the state a preterm birth grade of F in the latest March of Dimes report, ranking 51st out of 52.

The report also highlights disparities by race, ethnicity and insurance type, showing how systemic inequities affect who gets care.

Doctor Robert Moore, a maternal fetal medicine physician at Woman's Hospital, says the solutions start long before birth.

When you look at the overall report.

The country itself gets a D plus.

That's not good in a lot of that drivers the same problems that we're having.

The state is there having across the country, and we need to focus on trying to get people healthier before they get pregnant.

We've got to focus on obesity.

We've got to focus on high blood pressure.

We got to focus on diabetes.

At woman's, a team of doctors who specialize in high risk pregnancies traveled to smaller towns across Louisiana, providing care to patients with complex medical needs.

We will go to Monroe.

We will go to Lake Charles, we will go to Hammond.

We will go to.

And we'll take care of these patients that have all these complex medical problems in an effort to get them the best pregnancy outcomes.

When you look at the data from 2018 to now, the biggest reason that women die within the first year of life is accidental overdose and suicide.

So we've built what's called the Pyramid Natal Mental Health Unit, and its job is to take care of pregnant women and postpartum women that have behavioral health issues.

As hospitals expand services for high risk mothers, including mental health care, the growing threat of substance use has spurred urgent statewide action.

The Louisiana Department of Health launched Project Mom maternal overdose mortality with an aggressive goal reduce pregnancy associated overdose deaths by 80% within three years.

Women that die within a year from giving birth.

The number one reason is not car accidents homicide.

It's accidental overdose, and not by a little bit.

It's by a lot.

Now, hospitals across the state are putting that plan into action.

Programs at woman's working alongside Project Mom are already helping mothers get the care they need.

With Project Mom, a program that was developed by the Department of Health where we do medication assisted treatment in emergency rooms and in prenatal clinics, along with our Grace program that does care.

Navigation for moms with misuse disorder allow moms to have a network of support to help them through recovery.

Community organizations are also stepping in.

Mary's Hands Network provides doulas support and maternal health education to families most at risk.

Adult offers non-medical support before, during, and after birth.

Studies show it can improve outcomes for both moms and babies.

Doula care as associated with a decrease in section rate by almost 40%, you see an increase in initial breastfeeding.

We also see these great outcomes in our newborns.

So moms with doula care often have fewer preterm births.

They have heavier babies.

So we're seeing less low birth weight infants, which is one of the things that really struggles with the majority of the women we serve.

Our services are free.

So it's doula services for all and all can be a doula.

The majority of our clients are on Medicaid, and the majority of our clients are also identifying as African American, Latino, or some other minority.

At women's Hospital.

Leaders say doulas are helping bridge the gap between medical care and community support.

Working alongside organizations like Mary's Hands Network.

They have the ability to pair a mom with 2 to 3 doulas.

And the thing that I really like about their program is that they're all trained by internationally Childbirth Educators Association, and that's a very rigorous program.

I myself went through that program many, many, many years ago, early on in my career.

So I really understand how rigorous that program is, and they provide a great support to our moms.

From doula care to behavioral health services, these programs are working together to improve maternal outcomes.

Louisiana health leaders say supporting mothers takes a full circle approach addressing physical, mental and substance use needs before and after birth.

When we empower moms, we transform families, strengthen communities and change the world.

One healthy baby at a time.

Louisiana also has challenges extending health care to people living in rural areas.

Woman's hospital recently expanded its outreach across the state, with a second mobile unit offering high tech mammograms to people who might not otherwise have access.

For thousands of women across Louisiana, early detection can be the difference between life and death.

But getting a routine mammogram isn't always simple, especially in communities where hospitals and clinics are miles away.

One Louisiana patient knows that struggle all too well firsthand.

The mobile quote is convenient, is close.

The people are very nice and friendly, but it also gives me peace of mind to knowing that my health is well.

This is my second mammogram and both times have been favorable.

But nevertheless, every now and then we'll worry about a little something.

But like I said, when I come here and get my results, thank God they've always been favorable.

Carolyn Higginbotham is one of three women this year who received a 3D mammogram from Women's Hospital.

Not in a clinic, but a board.

Their mobile coach, a fully equipped medical suite built into a 40ft bus.

The coach travels across 36 parishes in Louisiana and into two counties in Mississippi, a rolling lifeline crossing state lines and back roads.

Women's hospital says the mission is simple but urgent.

Catch breast cancer early before it's too late.

Our main mission is to provide accessible care for women that may not have transportation.

They have mobility issues.

They need the lift the handicapped lip to get up.

They can't walk very far.

A lot of these areas, they don't have access.

We travel up to two hours.

They know that they are getting first rate care, but it's it's coming to them.

Inside the mobile coach, patients meet the same highly trained technologist they'd find at Woman's Hospital.

Every scan travels securely to radiologists read with the same accuracy as if it were taken inside the hospital itself.

And the coach exists for one reason to bring life saving care directly to women, where they live, where they work, and where they care for others.

Mammograms can only help.

They don't hurt.

There's a lot of myths out there about mammography, and that's why that's why we do what we do.

I mean, we all have a passion for it.

We see from the beginning and people come back to us and say, y'all saved my life.

The program has been on the move since 1995, long before mobile health care was common.

It started as a simple van carrying a single machine small enough to roll into a doctor's office or parish health unit, and through every mile of that journey.

Lead radiologic technologist Lisa Baker has been there.

She's been part of this mission since day one.

We would drive to sites.

We would push these little machines down a lift into the clinic.

We had a portable dark room.

It's you would stick your hands in and unload actual cassettes and we would do a lot of patients hand wrote registration forms.

Once the mammography went to digital, we saw need we needed coaches.

It had to be a fixed machine.

That's when we got our first coach in 2006.

Today, two mobile coaches criss cross Louisiana, each one driven by a pair of brothers.

One of them is Robert Walker, a 20 year veteran who's been there since the very first rollout.

Walker isn't just driving a coach.

He's honoring a promise.

He chose Woman's Hospital because it's the place that treated and ultimately saved his mother after her breast cancer diagnosis.

I kind of felt like I was giving back, and I just enjoyed doing it and even staying now, I enjoyed not just for my mother, for other women, and trying to tell them about getting the mammograms and importance of it.

It feels special to know that we can bring health care to them, and a lot of people don't think, you know, they don't want to go that far.

They never worry about it.

Or sometimes affordability.

It might be a questionnaire and they give up and they say, you know what, maybe it's just not for me.

It feels good to know that we bring it to them.

This week, the coaches stationed in Zachary offering walk ups when space allows.

Yet Women's Hospital says the mission stretches far beyond a parking lot.

It's about changing how communities think, talk and act when it comes to breast health.

Go to the doctor, check yourself, and if there's nothing wrong, you'll have total peace of mind and relief.

That'll take that weight off your shoulder.

And if there is something wrong, thank God you could be fixed and it doesn't get out of hand.

For Carolyn Higginbotham, a single convenient stop has turned a routine mammogram into peace of mind.

And she's not alone for thousands of women across Louisiana.

Preventative care now comes on wheels, one stop at a time.

Southern University landed another big accolade this year.

Southern's nursing school was named the best nursing school in the country for the second year in a row.

I talked to the school's dean about that honor.

Joining me now is Sandra Brown.

She is the health care leader, researcher and educator at Southern University in Baton Rouge.

She serves as both the dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health, and she's the vice chancellor of health initiatives.

Sandra, you've done a great job.

Tell me some about things that you're doing at southern.

Oh, we're doing some amazing things.

This is a wonderful time for us.

We're growing as far as our enrollment is going.

We're expanding programs, and we're also taking health care to the people who need it most.

Well, one of the amazing things I was just reading is you were named best nursing school two years in a row.

How did that happen?

It's amazing.

We keep asking ourselves that.

But what I tell my faculty and my students, if we do small things well, then we can do big things.

Great.

We were recognized for our impact that we're having both in our outreach, both in our academic success and in our large number of male students that we have in our program.

So lots of different firsts for the state of Louisiana.

I know in Louisiana and across the country, there's a shortage of nurses.

And that's one of the things that you guys are doing.

You're bringing in more nursing students.

How does that happen?

Absolutely.

Our enrollment has grown.

We have over 2100 students or in our College of Nursing and Allied Health.

And so if you were to walk on our campus and talk with our students, one in every four is within our college.

We are expanding our facilities so that we can double our enrollment.

So we're schedule to do some groundbreaking on our new facility, probably in the summer sometime.

Yeah, I was reading about this new nursing facility, and there's a lot of money going into it.

Where does that money come from?

Yes.

We're so grateful to our industry partners.

Women's hospital has donated $5 million, and Our Lady of the Lake Hospital has given us 5 million.

It's scheduled to be about a $20 million project.

So the state's going to match the other ten.

I think that's something that the whole country can use with recruiting more nurses.

Let's see.

There's some new technology at Southern University that I was reading about.

Tell me about that.

So when the students are actually testing what they've seen on actual mechanical patients.

Yes.

So we have a skills lab and we have a simulation center.

And in the simulation center, we have what we call high fidelity mannequins that can have heart sounds and lung sounds and cry real tears.

So what we're trying to do is create a learning environment that's as close to real world, so that the students can practice, make all the mistakes they want to make on these mannequins before they get into the real world.

Yeah.

So what are the kind of things do the students learn at the Southern University?

Oh, they're learning all kinds of high touch, high tech.

We have what we call an anatomic table that's like a real live cadaver, but it's all within a digitalized format.

So they're able to look at the body, look at the cells, look at organs, really taking the knowledge from the books to the practice setting.

Yeah.

I was reading about the JAG mobile health clinic.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

So you're actually driving out to see the patients.

They're not coming to you.

You're actually going to them.

We're going to them.

We say the mighty jags of Su bringing health care to you.

That's our slogan.

It is a 42ft an RV if you will.

It has two fully equipped examination rooms.

We go strategically to zip codes that have a shortage of health care professionals.

Some zip code areas might have one physician to serve 10,000 patients.

So with our nursing students and our faculty, we bring health care to those communities.

And what kind of treatments do you give that?

A lot of people need preventive.

So we do blood pressure screenings.

Check the cholesterol, the blood sugar.

We do cancer screenings, pap smears, prostate cancer screenings, lung cancer screenings.

We've been in operation for about three years, and in those three years, we have provided over 10,000 health screenings to over 3000 individuals.

And do you have any other programs coming up?

Yes.

We're excited.

We're waiting for final approval to launch our postmaster's psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner certificate program.

As you know, you know, our mental health is we're in a crisis right now, and we need more providers to provide that type of care.

All right.

Thank you.

A lot of good information from Doctor Sandra Brown from Southern University.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me.

A Louisiana fitness expert is on a mission to help seniors stay healthy and independent.

Frederick Griffith found his passion while helping his mother navigate her own health challenges.

Take a look.

Keeping fit is always a challenge in America.

From picking the right foods and making time to work out in a nearby gym.

But with the.

Health of the elder population.

In Louisiana is a little different.

Did you know that Louisiana's 65 plus population is growing faster than any other state?

Yet seniors are experiencing a declining physical and emotional health.

The life expectancy in the US has risen to around 85 years, yet the mortality rates have been decreasing.

As we age, we become a car.

That's been sitting for years and years and years.

But as we start to move, it's.

Like we're warming that car up again.

We're getting that car going.

Frederick Griffith was a kickboxer, working out in his free time.

He then became a kickboxing instructor, then a personal trainer.

In 2018, his mother went through a major health scare.

She lost her left leg and was working with a physical therapist.

Your mom was going through a lot and you had a solution.

What did.

You do?

Initially, I sat with the physical therapist who came out for roughly 30 minutes two times a week, and I watched what he was doing and taking notes.

I bought a resistance band and I started to work with her.

Griffith and set up routines for his mother and continued daily workouts that would dramatically help her in her daily life before she passed away.

I was a little bit shaken up because that was something that I couldn't help her with.

I didn't want to move on with this because the inspiration was gone.

Frederick Griffith first created the routine for his mom, and now it's growing into a fitness routine for the elders across Louisiana.

The impact on his mother's health was inspiring to Griffith.

He then made it his life's goal to make sure that other seniors did not have to face that stress alone.

I don't know of any kind of workout for someone in wheelchairs.

How did you come up with these workouts?

The workouts are just simple, functional workout.

So what I mean by functional is, is that as we're sitting here now, we could do a workout just by raising up our arm up and down.

Next came and idea to get some money to grow a new fitness.

So Griffith was applying for loans when he found out about a special program being sponsored by Beyonce.. Doing running.

A new fitness applied for a grant through the pop superstar and Business Woman's Be Good Foundation.

He knew it was a long shot, but that money could be gained changing for his mission to help others.

She was giving away over $1 million in major cities like San Francisco, London and where her concert tour went to.

Griffith hoped to grow his business with more instructors to host classes for seniors not just in New Orleans but across Louisiana.

So I apply for the grant, and we were invited to this amazing luncheon, and I didn't know that I was going to win the money.

And no one in that luncheon.

I knew that they were going to win the money.

And just so happened, I was called on the stage and I won $10,000 for my business.

The fitness training for elders began to grow.

Now serving over 30 different properties like nursing homes, senior centers and health care providers.

We'd have to help.

The thing is, we're there to make sure that the seniors are mobile and independent and continue to live the way of what they worked so hard for.

By the year 2035, it is expected there will be more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 65.

Most are not living longer because they are healthy, but because health care and medicine are getting better.

We've actually seen the seniors just get more involved with understanding that they have to keep moving.

And so because we bring a new here, they see that we are serious about them being involved in their health.

They also do line dancing.

And our seniors here love to line dance.

Can you teach me line dancing?

I can't, but a new can.

All right, Mr.

Deal.

How did you get started in this?

Working with fitness period.

I knew it would be better for people's bodies and health and things like that.

And then I said, well, I'm gonna go head on it further into working with seniors because we know we need a lot more than in the community with seniors.

So yeah.

And I love it.

They keep us going.

You know, they're look at us like, too bad for you, old lady.

You can't do this.

But then courage us.

And if we burn out in the middle, they just keep on going.

I was walking with a cane.

I started exercising, and I don't need a cane anymore.

It's not just an exercise routine for the seniors.

It's an exercise routine that can help anyone stay in great shape.

Everything is getting stronger.

I'm not as weak as I was about.

Within the last six months, I've had a lot of health problems and exercising helps me a lot.

How do you feel like this exercise impacts your muscles?

It keeps me moving.

Keeps me going in my body.

I like to be in the group.

It's a very friendly group and you know, I get along with everybody and get along with me.

So it's very homely act type of people here.

Haven't been thrown in here.. In the First Parish, an artist known for her quilts works to spread comfort and care.

One stitch at a time.

And hit carefully, crafts handmade dolls, donating them to hospitalized children and selling them to raise money for cancer charities.

L.A.

64 Karen LeBlanc shows us and labor of love.

I started putting hearts on all of them.

I call them heartfelt dolls because the hearts are made of guilt.

And hit so's.

A felt heart.

Onto every doll she donates to relay for life, the event that raises funds for the American Cancer Society.

She works from her home in Raceland in a sewing room organized down to the last spool, colorful threads, containers of buttons, swatches of fabric all carefully sorted and labeled.

They'll spend a day cutting out the bodies, the heads, the arms and so forth.

And then I'll spend another day just making a bunch of braids.

And then I take all of these bins and I start putting them together, you know, matching the socks.

This the shoes, the boots, the hair and so forth.

So when I sit down just to so you know, once they're already put together, I could probably do about 20 of them in a day.

Her dolls are bound for hospital gift shops, where every sale benefits the Cancer Society and into the arms of children in hospital wards who could use a long legged friend with a heart on its chest.

How did you learn to sew.

So well?

My mother sewed all of our clothes.

We were growing up.

There were nine of us, and out of my other two sisters, three sisters, they learned how to sew also.

But they never enjoyed it.

I did so I kept at it.

And walks me into her guest bedroom packed with dolls, each one with its own personality.

The braids and the pigtails she ties off by hand and the eyes she draws on herself.

She started this batch at the end of October and has not stopped.

By the time I visited, she was somewhere north of 220 dolls of her own design.

Before they were dolls, there were quilts and Ann's home is full of them.

Her heirloom quilts have hung in museum exhibits, and she sews each one by hand.

Now, one thing I never learned how to use was thimbles.

If I don't feel the fabric, I just it doesn't feel right.

So I usually end up putting a bunch of Band-Aids around my finger that gets poked a lot, but it's just a matter of following the lines.

Now, there's a lot of people that have quilt machines now that do all the quilting by machine, which they're still beautiful quilts, but I just it's just to me, not a true quilt unless it's hand-stitched.

And as long as these fingers work, I'm going to hand quilt all of my quilts.

And spent 33 years as a physical education teacher.

And during that time she started a quilting club for her students.

It began with two fifth graders who kept wandering into her classroom at recess.

One day, they caught her flipping through a photo album of her quilts as she prepared for an exhibit.

This is the quilt that they made adorable.

And I mean, they didn't know what they were doing.

They just, you know, cut them out randomly.

They had the stitches on top.

But to me, this is beautiful.

This is art.

And it is a Louisiana culture keeper who keeps the thread going.

Doll she sews is destined for someone, and every quilt is a heritage crowd and an heirloom for a generation she may never meet.

She's a woman quietly stitching her passion into purpose for the greater good.

You can check out our entire LA 64 episode about Lafourche Parish at LPB 64.

Here's a quick preview.

In this episode of LA 64, we follow Bayou Lafourche through Lafourche Parish, where wetlands Acadians put down roots and built a culture tied to the water.

From Thibodaux to Port will taste our way along the Cajun by U food trail, discovering the flavors that defined each bend in the bayou and meet the craftspeople and culture keepers.

Preserving traditions.

Lafourche parish calls itself Louisiana's Cajun Bayou.

Its name means the fork in French, and that definition fits.

This place is a branching point of history and heritage.

Land and water.

The Barish is part of the Italian National Heritage Area.

Daily life, culture and the economy all trace back to Bayou Lafourche, a 106 mile ribbon of water that shapes everything in its path.

We'll begin in Thibodaux, the parish seat, then follow the bayou south through Raistlin, Lockport, and La Rose, ending where the land meets the Gulf at Fort Boucher.

That's her show for this week, remember, you can watch anything LPB anytime, wherever you are with our LV app.

And you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs that you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook and Instagram.

For everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Christina Jensen.

And I'm Jonny Atkinson.

Until next time.

That's the.

State we're in.

For Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum.

Located in Jennings City Hall, the museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And by Mary Byrd Perkins Cancer Center.

Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.