Virginia Health Care Foundation Awards Nearly $1.2 Million to Increase Access to Medical Care, Behavioral Health Care, and Dental Services for Uninsured Virginians.

Richmond, VA – The Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF) has recently awarded grants totaling nearly $1.2 million to 13 health safety net organizations throughout Virginia to increase access to medical care, behavioral health care, and dental services for uninsured and medically underserved Virginians.

Grantees and projects awarded follow:

Primary Medical Care

  • Blue Ridge Medical Center – $213,500 to establish an innovative new clinic in Appomattox in partnership with Horizon Behavioral Health. Together, these two organizations will create a carefully coordinated system of primary care and behavioral health services to meet the varied and growing needs of the community.  In addition to primary care, the new clinic will provide a wide-range of services including onsite x-ray and lab work, physical therapy, counseling, patient education, and psychiatric services to local residents of all ages.
  • Eastern Shore Rural Health System – $72,000 to support a full-time physician assistant at Onley Community Health Center.  ESRHS is a system of community health centers providing health services in five locations on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.  It treats 63% of the entire population of the Eastern Shore and more than 90% of the area’s uninsured population.  This grant will allow ESRHS to treat nearly 2,000 additional patients each year.
  • Ledwith-Lewis Free Clinic – $14,399 to hire a part-time nurse practitioner.  LLFC provides chronic and acute medical care, educational programs, specialty referrals, and medication assistance to uninsured residents of the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula. This grant will allow LLFC to expand clinic hours and treat several hundred additional patients each year.

Behavioral Health Care

  • Childsavers – $103,325 to hire two additional Behavioral Health Clinicians to provide trauma-informed mental health services to low-income children in Richmond. These clinicians will create personalized treatment plans including therapy, assessments, and pediatric psychiatric treatments designed to address each child’s individual experience of trauma and build positive coping and resiliency skills.
  • CrossOver Healthcare Ministry – $108,600 to hire its first Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. This will enable CrossOver to perform assessments and provide diagnoses, mental health treatments, and medications to ensure many more patients with behavioral health needs receive appropriate care.
  • Free Medical Clinic of Northern Shenandoah Valley – $67,007 to support a full-time psychiatric nurse practitioner.  FMC has served uninsured, low-income residents of Winchester and surrounding counties since 1986.  While FMC has long provided primary care services, the hiring of a full-time psychiatric nurse practitioner enables the clinic to offer behavioral health appointments four days a week.  This allows FMC to treat hundreds of additional patients each year and ensures all patients with behavioral health needs can receive appropriate care.
  • Rockbridge Area Health Center – $116,064 to support a significant expansion of its behavioral health program.  RAHC provides free medical, dental, and behavioral health care services to residents of the Rockbridge Area.  This grant will help RAHC hire a full-time licensed clinical social worker, a full-time behavioral health consultant, and a part-time psychiatrist, who will enable RAHC to treat hundreds of additional patients with behavioral health needs each year.

 Dental Care

  • Augusta Regional Clinic – $30,484 to hire a part-time endodonist and a supporting dental assistant to provide a variety of previously unavailable services, including root canal therapy, dental surgery, and the treatment of dental trauma to local children, pregnant women, and uninsured adults.
  • Charlottesville Free Clinic – $27,125 to expand its dental program.  CFC’s dental program provides exams, fillings, cleanings, and extractions to low-income adults and children without dental insurance.  This grant will enable CFC to support a full-time dental hygienist, increasing the number of hygiene appointments available and reducing restrictions on patient visits.
  • CrossOver Healthcare Ministry – $30,000 to hire a part-time Dental Hygienist.  For many patients, hygiene visits are the vital first step in their treatment plans. Hiring an additional dental hygienist will allow CrossOver to serve 500 more dental patients each year.
  • Greater Prince William Community Health Center – $56,250 to expand its dental program.  GPWCHC currently provides primary care, behavioral health care, and dental services in Prince William County and Manassas.  This grant will be used to support the hiring of a full-time dentist, enabling GPWCHC to treat nearly 800 new dental patients each year.
  • Harrisonburg Community Health Center – $214,223 to add two new operatories and hire a dental hygienist and a dentist with endodontic experience.  This expansion will allow the clinic to serve an estimated 3,000 additional patients each year and provide a variety of previously unavailable services, including root canal therapy, dental surgery, and the treatment of dental trauma.
  • Northern Virginia Dental Clinic – $122,000 to hire two part-time dentists, a dental hygienist, and a dental assistant to provide dental care at its Fairfax location.  The new staff will allow NVDC to serve more than 500 additional patients each year.

Last Updated on June 11, 2018