New clinic opens in Leland, expands local access to healthcare in the Mississippi Delta

LELAND – Uninsured and underinsured residents of the Mississippi Delta can access affordable dentistry and physical, occupational and speech therapy through a new initiative based in Leland of Delta Health Alliance, a nonprofit organization that works to improve access to health services. 

A year after breaking ground, the Delta Cares Center opened its doors Thursday. 

Patients can pay for services on a sliding scale that starts at $3 – and can receive a free ride to and from the clinic, said Karen Matthews, CEO of Delta Health Alliance.

“They assume they can’t come get care because they don’t have insurance or because they have Medicaid or whatever – and they can,” Matthews said. 

Funded by a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Delta Cares Center is attached to the comprehensive Leland Medical Clinic that has served the region since 2013.  

Dane Maxwell, Mississippi’s director for USDA rural development, called projects such as the Leland clinic expansion “the exact type of economic development projects that we aim to support” in an email to Mississippi Today. Maxwell echoed this remark during a speech at the clinic’s grand opening Thursday. 

Among the patients hoping to be first in line for an appointment is Billy Tucker, a 50-year-old single father from Greenville. In 2024, Tucker and his two sons, now 8 and 10, nearly died in a car crash. For the first time in two years, Tucker said he has hope he might begin to address the intense back and nerve pain that leaves him “hurting all the time” and unable to return to work, stand for more than five minutes or even sign his name. The former truck driver said he has been denied disability benefits from the state several times, exhausted his savings, sold all his valuables and experienced wait times up to six months for occupational and physical therapy.

“Providing – that’s what I miss most,” Tucker said about not being able to use his hands to cook, clean and play with his kids the way he used to. He said he knows he provides for his sons emotionally and in other ways, such as helping them with their homework. But as a former foster child, Tucker said he wants to do as much as he can to give them the childhood he didn’t have. 

At Leland Medical Clinic, up to 500 patients like Tucker will be able to access rehabilitative therapy as a result of the expansion, said Hilary Meier, vice president of health at the clinic. Additionally, the new space will have openings for about 2,000 dental patients in the first year, she said. Meier expects those slots to fill up quickly.

“We have a lot of patients with pain,” Meier said. Many of them go without preventive care and ultimately suffer chronic health problems, she said.

To make its expansion possible, the nonprofit hired a dentist and four rehabilitative therapists for physical, occupational, speech and respiratory therapy.

Those who stand to gain the most from the clinic’s opening are those who have historically lost the most. People in the Delta have often felt overlooked when it comes to public investment and healthcare. The region has some of the worst health metrics in the state and country, including higher rates of untreated diabetes leading to amputations. 

For people like Tucker, the opening couldn’t come soon enough. In the absence of physical therapy services, Tucker has been using the wellness center at Leland Medical Clinic to exercise on his own. But he is excited by the possibility of getting support that could improve his quality of life and keep him around longer for his boys. 

“I sit here at the house and I feel like I’m wasting away,” Tucker said. “I don’t want to waste away. I want to get better.”