The Working Poor: Poverty In Rural Georgia

Poverty in Rural Georgia: The Working Poor
Introduction
Pictures of rural America portray a quaint, friendly, family oriented towns where fields are green, everyone is happy and life is easy going. At first sight Cedartown, Georgia completely fits the picture. Cedartown is a rural town in northwest Georgia with a population of just under 10,000. The community origins were farming and mining iron ore in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. In the mid 1900’s industries began coming into the area with the largest being Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The town thrived with multiple industries and good jobs for many years. However, over the past 20 years one by one many industries left. Although there has been some new development, the
Department of Health and Human Services: Healthy People 2020, 2016, Objectives: Access to Health Services, para 6) will improve the health status of the working poor in the Cedartown community. Nurses who work in all areas of community health can be valuable assets to achieving this objective. School nurses identify at risk children and provide parents with information on the available resources for the care. These nurses also provide health screening exams and assist with chronic disease management of the children in their care. School nurses should work closely with the other community resources to assure delay in care is avoided. The nurses go on truancy calls with the truancy officers and can identify living conditions requiring intervention by the Department of Family and Children Services. Additionally, Home health nurses are in the homes and provide a link to identifying health care needs. They can also recognize family needs other than the patient they are caring for. When identified, they can offer resource information and contact proper authorities of any perceived negligence or violence. Public health nurses are available to provide education and resource information. Although not part of the community nursing family, the nurses in ER’s and hospitals should contact social workers and provide community resource materials to the patients they care for. Another factor which can prove beneficial is to communicate with the patients about financial assistance programs, enrolling them in free prescription programs and assisting in applying for Medicaid. In the hospital environment, we find the patients do not always realize they are eligible for Medicaid or other