Page 55 - Robeson Living Holiday 2018

Community advisory committee to help guide planning at
Dr. A.J. Robinson Community Health and Wellness Center J

Front row, from left, are CHS Coalition and Taskforce Operations
Assistant Shareen Lawson, SeHealth VP of Post Acute Care Services
Lori Dove, RHCC Substance Abuse Prevention Program Manager
Latasha Murray, and RHCC VP Chief Behavioral Health Officer
Bart Grimes. Back row, from left, are Pastor T. Shedrick Byrd,
RHCC CEO Tim Hall, Lumberton Police Chief Michael McNeill, K
& K Automotive Representative DeWayne Hunt, RCCCC Director
Andrew Collier, Lumberton Housing Authority Asset Manager
Monica Troy and SeHealth Community Health Services Director
Lekisha Hammonds.

A new advisory committee has been formed to help the future Dr. A.J. Robinson Community Health and Wellness
Center better serve the community. In May, it was announced that Southeastern Health’s Dr. A.J. Robinson Medical
Clinic would be reopening in partnership with Robeson Health Care Corporation and with the new name. The clinic
at 800 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive closed after 2016’s Hurricane Matthew flooded the facility, but it thankfully did
not flood after Hurricane Florence and is expected to reopen next year.
SeHealth President and CEO Joann Anderson said reopening the clinic will be an opportunity to start a revitalization
of the community.

“As RHCC and Southeastern Health leaders worked on the plan to reopen the clinical services in the community, we
realized it was not our place to define what the community could become after all the challenges it has faced,”
Anderson said. “We realized others have a stake in that community and have visions of what it can be. We want to be
a part of creating that vision, with the advisory committee. We look forward to working with the community to make
it the best it can be.”

RHCC CEO Tim Hall said he is excited to see the great things that he knows will come from the committee.

“When we, in partnership with Southeastern Health, came up with the idea for the advisory committee, there was so
much energy and excitement about what this gathering of community leaders could do once they put their collective
heads together,” Hall said. “I believe that this committee will passionately drive efforts that will, both directly and
indirectly, positively affect the health and wellbeing of the people living in the community.”

A recent meeting at the Robeson County Church and Community Center included several community leaders who
had gathered to hear updates on the clinic, give input and help plan the future of the facility, before and beyond when
it reopens next year. The current plan is for the clinic to initially offer primary care and behavioral health care.

“You could feel the enthusiasm in the room,” said SeHealth Community Health Services Director Lekisha
Hammonds. “We are very eager and excited to work hand in hand along with this group of very knowledgeable and
passionate people who are vested in the south Lumberton community.”
Hammonds said the health administrators left the first meeting with homework to consider how to implement several
ideas the group brought up, as well as input for getting a few more community residents on the committee.

SeHealth Vice President of Post Acute Care Services Lori Dove said the conversation at the meeting quickly moved
past celebrating the reopening to planning how to bring needed services and hope back to the community.

“There were many ideas brought forward to develop paths to serve the mental health, food insecurity and housing
needs in the community,” Dove said. “It’s a diverse group that has joined together with a clear focus on how we can
meld our various backgrounds and talents into becoming one community, full of hope, and in the knowledge that we
as a community can make a difference.”
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Robeson Living ~ Holiday 2018 Page 55

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