HJAR Jan/Feb 2022

10 JAN / FEB 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS   Tiffany Haynes, PhD, is very familiar with those challenges and focuses her work on finding ways to build those bridg- es to care, particularly for African Ameri- cans and those who live in rural Arkansas. Haynes is an associate professor of health behavior and health education at UAMS’ Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. Her research has led her to think outside the box in finding ways to connect with at-risk individuals outside the traditional clinical setting to help achieve health eq- uity. Now, thanks to an $18.9 million grant to UAMS from the National Institutes of Health, Haynes is preparing to embark on her latest project — determining if bringing that clinical care to, of all places, local bar- bershops can have an impact on partici- pants’ health and well-being. The grant, from the NIH National Insti- tute on Minority Health and Health Dis- parities will help UAMS establish a new Center for Research, Health and Social Justice. The Center will guide research, training and community engagement ac- tivities focused on reducing cancer and cardiovascular disease disparities in Afri- can Americans and rural communities. As part of the Center’s focus, Haynes will explore new approaches to address alco- hol abuse in Black men. Alcohol abuse is a contributing factor for both mental health issues and cancer, but it’s not a connection often made by those with poor health liter- acy. Seeing the need for patient education in a population unlikely to seek treatment for a problem they don’t know they have, Haynes plans to take that intervention out of a clinical setting and bring it to the peo- ple who need it, in a place they already feel comfortable. Inspired by a similar initiative used suc- cessfully by the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH), Haynes wanted to find out if conducting a brief intervention in the barbershop setting might work. First, it’s a place where Black men are usually com- fortable and already talk and share infor- mation. Second, it’s accessible and a place they already frequent. “What we learned from ADH is that we can have conversations about tough top- ics in barber shops and beauty shops,” said Haynes. “If people are listening and at- tending and they believe we are providing relevant and important information, that’s a first step. This project goes a step further to see if we can do more than educate, can we add in clinical intervention and treat- ment to make more of an impact? “We are going to have what we call an SBIRT which is screening, brief interven- tion and referral to treatment. We’ll talk to them about drinking, what their drinking behaviors mean for their health, and pro- vide resources to help them. We want to see if we can make it work outside of the clinic walls.” This is not the first time Haynes has brought healthcare interventions to the community in unlikely settings. She also was part of the REJOICE (Renewed and Empowered for the Journey to Overcome in Christ Everyday) project, an initiative One of the most basic challenges to delivering quality healthcare can sometimes be as simple as connecting with the patient in a way that he or she feels comfortable. Sometimes it’s about the words we use, sometimes it’s about establishing trust and sometimes it is about the space where care is provided.