UA’s Eighth Annual Rural Health Conference to Focus on Health and Spirituality

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Barbara Alving, M.D., director of the National Center for Research Resources, part of the National Institutes of Health, will give one of the keynote addresses at the eighth annual Rural Health Conference April 19-20 at The University of Alabama’s Bryant Conference Center.

Alving will provide the luncheon keynote address April 19 at the conference, “Hope and Healing for Health Disparities: A Conference on Spirituality and Rural Health.” The conference is hosted by the UA Institute for Rural Health Research and the College of Community Health Sciences, which is the Tuscaloosa campus of the UA School of Medicine.

The conference will feature other prominent national keynote speakers, including:

• Reverend Melvin B. Tuggle, II, Ph.D., pastor of Garden of Prayer Baptist Church in Baltimore, and chairman of Heart Body and Soul, a partnership of Johns Hopkins University and Baltimore-area churches. The nationally recognized partnership conducts health and prevention programs in Baltimore and is considered a model for community-based care.
• Harold G. Koenig, M.D., M.H.Sc., co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University Medical Center, and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and associate professor of medicine at Duke University.
• Bishop Earnest L. Palmer, M.Ed., Ed.S., senior pastor of Cornerstone Full Gospel Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, which is engaged in health promotion and wellness initiatives in West Alabama.
• Rueben C. Warren, D.D.S., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., director of Infrastructure Development for the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities in Bethesda, Md., and associate director of the Institute for Faith-Health Leadership at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

Breakout sessions will be held both conference days. Session topics include: church-based strategies; volunteer faith-based partnerships; research in faith-based strategies; spirituality and survivorship; hospital-based health and spirituality; and issues with end-of-life care.

There will also be a “Faith and Health” discussion panel that will include religious leaders of various faiths from throughout Alabama (Baptist, Judaism, Muslim, Seventh-day Adventist and Buddhism) who will speak about their respective faith.

The cost of the conference is $75 per person and includes two continental breakfasts, a luncheon, refreshment breaks and handout materials. Continuing Education Unit certificates will be available.

The conference is supported in part by a grant awarded to Tuskegee University and the Institute for Rural Health Research from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Much of the research conducted by the Institute focuses on Alabama’s rural Black Belt region, where people suffer at higher rates than other Alabamians from cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses and diseases.

For more information about the Eighth Annual Rural Health Conference or to register online, visit the conference website at http://rhc.ua.edu, or call the Institute for Rural Health Research at 205/348-0025.