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South Louisiana Community College unveiled its new Home Health Training Lab at the college’s Gulf Area Campus in Abbeville this week. This lab is the result of a partnership with LHC Group and Myers Family Foundation called “A Legacy of Caring in the Home and Community” that began in 2020.
The Home Health Lab features a state-of-the-art, immersive environment that replicates a patient’s bedroom or living room and allows SLCC healthcare students to practice the knowledge, skills, and abilities of home care in a realistic environment. The lab is complete with an advanced computerized simulation mannequin that replicates a variety of clinical situations and responds to care given by its users.
“We are thrilled to officially open this laboratory at our Abbeville campus and expose our nursing students to a growing and critical component of healthcare,” said Dr. Vincent June, SLCC chancellor. “Simulations have been incredibly important to training our students during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it allows for a realistic experience to practice and enhance their skills before touching a human patient.”
The creation of Home Health Labs across SLCC’s rural campuses anchors the “Legacy” project, and the college is unveiling similar labs at its Ville Platte and Morgan City campuses this week. Later this year, three additional labs will be completed at SLCC’s St. Martinville, Crowley, and Opelousas campuses.
“The launch of this lab offers an enhanced level of opportunity for members of this community who wish to pursue a career in healthcare,” said Dr. Benjamin Doga, LHC Group’s chief medical officer. “In-home care has increased in both importance and demand across the healthcare industry, particularly over the past year. Now, we can offer students a chance to learn and train in an environment that will hone the skills they need to help our community, our state, and our nation meet this growing demand.”
The project will help to create a new workforce for a growing subset of the healthcare industry. By the end of 2021, more than 350 SLCC students will be trained in the home health labs.
Over the course of the five-year project, SLCC will create a large-scale scholarship program for healthcare students, drive the implementation of a home health credential, bring health training opportunities to SLCC’s healthcare faculty, offer continuing education in home health, and establish endowed professorships to support the recruitment and retention of exemplary nursing faculty. Lastly, the project will create the state’s first community college endowed chair, which will focus its activities on nursing and home health.
The $2.5 million funding behind the project is historic in itself, and represents the largest private investment in a community college in Louisiana.

ABOUT ACADIANA’S COMMUNITY COLLEGE
South Louisiana Community College is a comprehensive community college that operates campuses in Abbeville, Crowley, Franklin, Houma, Lafayette, Morgan City, New Iberia, Opelousas, St. Martinville, and Ville Platte. The college serves more than 15,000 students annually and offers an array of academic programs. Students earn associate degrees, technical diplomas, certificates, and industry-based certifications. It is ranked 14th among the Top 100 Associate Degree Producers as determined by Community College Week.

ABOUT LHC GROUP, INC.
LHC Group, Inc. is a national provider of in-home healthcare services and innovations, providing high-quality and affordable healthcare services to patients in the privacy and comfort of the home or place of residence. LHC Group’s services cover a wide range of healthcare needs for patients and families dealing with illness, injury, or chronic conditions. The company’s 32,000 employees deliver home health, hospice, home and community-based services, and facility-based care in 35 states and the District of Columbia – reaching 60 percent of the U.S. population aged 65 and older. LHC Group is the preferred in-home healthcare partner for 350 leading hospitals around the country. In 2019, the company was named to the inaugural Forbes list of “America’s Best-in-State Employers.”

ABOUT MYERS FAMILY FOUNDATION
Born out of and supporting St. Landry Parish and the wider Acadiana region, Myers Family Foundation aims to protect and enhance causes related to healthcare education, elder care, and Catholic charities.

Why does so much Louisiana French music come from the prairies of Evangeline Parish and western St. Landry?
Musical traditions such as the long-running Saturday morning broadcast from Fred’s Lounge in Mamou are rooted in a much longer tradition. Ville Platte has been designated by the Louisiana Legislature as the “Swamp Pop Capital of the World” because of the town’s major role in the development of swamp pop music. Floyd Soileau’s JIN Records, the label that has produced more swamp pop acts than any other in the state, began in Ville Platte and recorded such artists as the Boogie Kings, Rod Bernard, Tommy McLain, Joe Barry, Jivin’ Gene, Johnnie Allan, and Warren Storm.
Soileau also came from the prairies, reared in Faubourg near Ville Platte. He produced hundreds of Cajun French records under his other label, Swallow records, Floyd’s Record Shop in Ville Platte was an internationally known Cajun and zydeco music distributor.
“La-La” music, predecessor to much of what we call Cajun and zydeco, was developed on the prairies by memorable musicians such Amédé Ardoin, who was from the Eunice area, and carried on by others like Bois Sec Ardoin, who was born in Duralde, and Canray Fontenot, a native of L’anse aux Vaches near Basile.
Cajun hall of fame musicians such as Mayeus LaFleur (Mamou), Leo Soileau (Ville Platte), Iry Lejeune (Pointe Noire), Dennis McGee (Eunice area) and Nathan Abshire (born in Gueydan but a longtime resident of Basile) were instrumental in developing Cajun music as we know it.
Dewey Balfa and his brothers, who came from Mamou, were among the leaders of the revival of Cajun music.
Those are the ones who pop first into my mind. There were — and are — dozens of others who have their roots in the area and helped form early Louisiana French music and who continue the tradition today.
Why is that? Bois Sec Ardoin once suggested that it might be because in the early days there was nothing else to do out on the prairies but to play music and that once the tradition began within a family, it just kept going. That’s probably as close to the truth as we’re going to get.
These musicians began to play on the front porches of their homes, later graduated to house dances, and then became mainstays at such institutions as the Avalon Club or Rainbow Club in Basile, Richard’s in Mallet, the Evangeline in Ville Platte, Green Lantern and Step-Inn Club at Lawtell and dozens of other dance halls that filled to overflowing on Saturday nights.
The early musicians also were the first to record many Louisiana French songs, and thus their versions became the standard used by later musicians, Songs handed down from front porch to front porch, often with lyrics changed by each musician, were preserved in recordings that others imitated. The lyrics and beat and meter of the recorded version became identified as the “right” way to sing or play a song.
Nowadays Cajun and zydeco music is heard around the world and is identified with all of south Louisiana. And there are, of course, dozens of pioneers and modern practitioners who come from some place other than the Evangeline and St. Landry area. But if you want to find where the roots of the music sink deepest, the south Louisiana prairies might be a good place to start looking.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.

Several months ago, President Joe Biden was vaccinated. In the White House, he is surrounded by people who have also been vaccinated. Nevertheless, he continues to wear a mask, even when outdoors or alone on Zoom calls with world leaders. In a recent online conference call, Biden was the only world leader wearing a mask.
This week, he was asked by a reporter why he continues to wear a mask outdoors, even though the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has lifted that requirement for those who have been vaccinated. Biden said, “Because, when we’re inside, it’s still good policy to wear the mask, that’s why. When I am outside, and the problem is: Lots of times, I walk away from this podium, you notice, I forget to put my mask back on because I’m used to not wearing it outside.”
In other words, he wears the mask because he forgets to take it off when going outside. However, he did just the opposite when he recently met with former President Jimmy Carter, 96 years old, and his wife Rosalyn Carter, 93 years old. A photo of the encounter showed that neither Biden, nor his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, wore masks for their meeting with the President and his wife. If Biden claims it is “good policy” to wear a mask indoors, why did he not wear it when meeting with two very elderly individuals who are potentially susceptible to the spread of the virus?
Possibly Biden did not realize that former President Carter would release the photo to the public. When Biden left the meeting with the Carters to go outside, he immediately placed his mask back on. He attached a mask outdoors, despite the CDC guidelines. All this did was show the media and the public that mask wearing should continue. It was another example of insane virtue signaling to the American public.
The left has more than an affinity for masks, they have a true love affair. A mask shows your obedience to the government. It creates faceless Americans, devoid of personality, following orders from all-knowing health officials.
In our country, too many leftists are quite willing to submit to government authorities, while conservatives are more independent minded, enjoy their freedoms and have a tradition of questioning authority.
As the COVID-19 mitigation measures, including mask mandates, have continued in many states for almost 14 months, millions of Americans are ready for these measures to end. In school districts across the country, parents are criticizing local education officials about the continuation of mask mandates. There are regular fights among Americans at airports, stadiums, and other public places about masks. As more Americans become vaccinated, the opposition to masks will only grow.
The entire rationale for mask mandates has always been suspect. While it is the left’s favorite symbol of oppression, its effectiveness in stopping the spread of COVID-19 has been uncertain from the very beginning. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the CDC originally did not recommend wearing a mask.
Eventually, the mask mantra became part of the continuing messaging Americans heard from local, state, and national government officials. However, the absurdity of wearing a mask has always been apparent to anyone who examines the rules.
It is ridiculous to wear a mask into a restaurant, then several feet away take it off at a table for several hours, only to place it back on for a few seconds to leave. In Congress and other public meetings, speakers wear a mask to walk to the microphone, remove it to speak, put it back on, and this continues for the duration of the hearing.
All of this posturing is strictly for the cameras, it is not based on definitive scientific or health studies. Fortunately, more Americans are rising up and demanding the nonsense ends.
Wearing a mask can inhibit a person’s ability to breathe. Most people wear masks that are not sanitized and are brimming with germs. Few Americans follow the guidelines on how masks should be regularly cleaned. Often wearing a mask creates more health problems for the user than it prevents.
At this point, healthy Americans should not be wearing a mask. It should be worn only by those who are elderly and have serious health conditions. It is time for the healthy and vaccinated people to put the mask away. If we see Americans wearing a mask outdoors or while exercising, it is time to treat them with ridicule, for they are being truly foolish.
Currently, 25 states, mostly Democratic strongholds, have statewide mask mandates. The rest of the states never had a mandate or lifted it in some way by executive, legislative or judicial order. It is no coincidence that people living in liberal states want mask mandates to continue, while those living in conservative states are embracing their freedom.
Finally, some government experts are making sense about the continuation of the mask mandates. For example, Scott Gottlieb, former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, noted that the widespread distribution of vaccines should allow for all indoor mask mandates to be promptly ended.
He said, “I think we should start lifting these restrictions as aggressively as we put them in.” According to Gottlieb, “the only way to earn public credibility is to demonstrate you're willing to relax these provisions when the situation improves, that’s what gives you the credibility to implement them when things worsen.”
Fortunately, Gottlieb believes that the COVID-19 infection rates will continue to fall and that the “summer looks very good.” If only the Biden administration agreed with this analysis. The CDC is still recommending that all Americans, regardless of vaccine status, wear a mask indoors. If this is the case, what is the incentive for getting a vaccine?
The answer is that the Biden administration wants Americans to be vaccinated but is also invested in the mask mandate and wants it to continue indefinitely.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com

The North Vermilion Patriots celebrated Saturday afternoon after the the North Vermilion Patriots qualified for the semifinal finals of the Class 4A playoffs.
The Patriots (31-7) beat Franklinton (25-7) in two straight game. On Friday, NV won --- in Game 1 and then beat Franklinton 15-7 in Game 2 on Saturday.
The Patriots, who are are the third seeded team, advances to the next round to No. 7 battle South Terrebonne (21-9). The game is at 10 a.m. on Thursday in Sulphur.
The game will be played on Field 40 at McMurry Park.
Tickets can be purchased only on the LHSAA website. (lhssa.org).
The winner of that game plays Saturday at 6 p.m. the finals.
This will be North Vermilion’s third time in the semifinals in the school’s 40-year history. The last time they went, however, was in 1993 and 1994. North Vermilion won the Class 2A state title in 1993 and then reached the finals again in 1994.
So it has been 27 years since the Patriots reached the final four and it will be the first time North Vermilion head coach Jeremy Trahan, who has been the head coach for 14 years.
“It feels great,” Trahan said. “We’ve been working to do this as a program for a while. During the past 14 years, we’ve been to the quarterfinals multiple times but never could break through.”
The jinx is finally over for Trahan.
He now joins former NV head coach Brent Broussard as the two coaches to take a North Vermilion team to the semifinals.
On Saturday, the Patriots fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and then crawled back into the game. Down 3-2 , NV poured on 13 runs to blow the game open.
“We know we can score,” Trahan said. “When we score, we usually score in bunches. That’s sort of what we’ve been doing. We had a big inning in the fifth and kept the momentum.”
North Vermilion scored seven runs in the top of the fifth inning, thanks to patients at the plate.
North Vermilion’s Dale Martin, John Touchet and Brandt Fontenot had three consecutive walks that scored three runs for a 6-3 lead.
Dylan Naquin ripped a 2-RBI single for a 8-3 lead.
Camden Breaux also had a RBI_walk in the same inning, to blow the game open, 9-3.
North Vermilion added six more runs in the top of the seventh inning to ice the game.
Breaux had a the big hit in the inning when he doubled home two runs but then reached third base and home plate on two consecutive Franklinton errors for a 11-6 lead.
Breaux went 1-for-3 with a double and he knocked in three runs.
North Vermilion had 10 hits.
Dylan Naquin was 2-for-4 (2 RBI), Jordan Blanchard (2-for-4) and Cooper David (2-for-4) had multiple hits.
John Touchet (10-0) had a big game on the hill. Touchet, son of Nick Touchet member of the 1993 state championship team) pitched all seven innings, only gave up one earned one. He struck out four and walked two.
Also, in the seventh inning he smashed a three-RBI home run.