Health care agencies increase accessibility

Two area health care agencies have formed a partnership intended to increase accessibility to behavioral health care and primary health care services in Aiken County.

Through the use of a grant funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Aiken Barnwell Mental Health Center and Margaret J. Weston Community Health Center have undertaken an Integrated Healthcare Project through which the two will share some resources and staff to collaboratively provide patient care.

"We do a whole lot better together than we do separately, which can enhance and strengthen safety nets for the community, and if you coordinate those services, you begin to break down some of those barriers, as well as the ambiguity of 'Where do I go for what?'" said Rick Acton, ABMHC executive director, who added that those with serious mental illness have trouble accessing health care.

Those with severe and persistent mental illness, Acton said, have an average life expectancy that is 25 years less than the standard population, and "so much of that is due to either inadequate or marginally available health care."

MJWCHC CEO Carolyn Emanuel-McClain said that rather than having to refer patients with behavioral health needs to another facility, the partnership would allow MJWCHC to rely on ABMHC's expertise and vice versa.

The grant awarded $15,000 to the two organizations to come up with ways to establish a partnership and begin examining integration strategies.

"It's going to allow us to provide health services to a common population," Emanuel-McClain said. "Many of the patients that use (ABMHC) are also patients of ours for primary care, so instead of having patients getting behavioral health at one place and primary care at another, we're trying to integrate that so we can do more with treating the whole patient."

Through the partnership, Jeff Waddell, a behavioral health consultant from ABMHC, will work at the Clearwater office of MJWCHC two days per week, and, in exchange, a doctor from MJWCHC will also work part-time in the ABMHC's main office in Aiken.

The co-location staff, as well as the coordination of resources, will create a one-stop shop for patients, Acton said.

Instead of writing a prescription for a behavioral issue, a medical care provider at MJWCHC can call the behavioral health consultant into an exam room for a consultation. Similarly, the staff at ABMHC can call on the MJWCHC staff.

Emanuel-McClain said she hopes the partnership will eventually become a fully integrated service.

Tamara Smith, program manager of community rehabilitative services at ABMHC, also said that she foresees the partnership expanding.

"We have the key resources in place," she said.

ABMHC has a caseload of 2,200 patients but works with about 4,500 patients per year. MJWCHC sees about 10,000 patients per year.

Anna Dolianitis is a reporter for the Aiken Standard. She covers the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site, as well as court and legal matters affecting Aiken County. She has been with the Aiken Standard since August 2010.