8/20/08

Health care grants support services for residents of Kansas City, Kan.

LAWRENCE — Grants to the University of Kansas from the REACH Healthcare Foundation will help provide mental health services and medical care in Kansas City, Kan. The grants, which total $215,045, help support two Kansas City, Kan., programs —Youth Success and Silver City Health Center. The grants were made to KU Endowment.

REACH Foundation’s $115,045 grant to Youth Success will help adolescents overcome barriers to obtaining needed mental health services. Youth Success is a partnership of KU’s School of Social Welfare, Rosedale Middle School, and Wyandot Behavioral Health Care Center. The school provides space for KU social work students to meet with middle school students. Donna Devine, project manager through KU’s School of Social Welfare, and a bilingual parent advocate also are available to talk to students.

During its first year, the 2007-08 academic year, Youth Success helped 33 middle school students obtain services through Wyandot Behavioral Health Care Center. Most of the students participated in the program for at least six months. All were treated on a sliding scale according to their family’s income but no students were turned away because of inability to pay.

“We provide support,” Devine said of the program. “Our job is to overcome systems barriers so that students can get the services they need from professionals who can best provide the mental health services to them.”

The program’s first year was such a success that Rosedale Middle School’s principal, Connie Horner, gave up her own office space so that Youth Success could move from a tucked-away third-floor office to a more prominent location on the first floor.

Horner said the program plays a critical role in enhancing student learning, “The Rosedale students, parents and teachers now have ready access to services and are taking advantage of them, because the KU Team is located here in our school.”

A $100,000 grant from REACH Foundation to Silver City Health Clinic provides crucial operating funds, said Mary Virden, clinic administrator.

“The fact that REACH Foundation’s funding allows us to use that money in a fairly unrestricted manner is a real lifesaver, literally and figuratively — for Silver City and for our patients,” Virden said.

Silver City has been a provider of health care since 1998. Services range from primary care, such as illnesses, well-child visits and immunizations, to chronic care, including diabetic foot care.

The clinic is a collaborative venture through KU HealthPartners, an alliance of the University of Kansas Schools of Nursing and Allied Health. Health care practitioners, including nurse practitioners, physicians, dieticians, physical therapists and patient educators see patients at the clinic.

The medical care is provided on a sliding scale according to income. In 2007, 48 percent of Silver City’s patients had no medical insurance. Another 30 percent were on Medicaid or Healthwave insurance programs.

Silver City’s health care services are crucial, Virden said, “When individuals lack adequate access to health care, they suffer, their families suffer and eventually, their communities suffer.”

KU Endowment is the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.

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