The York Daily Record investigation team took a look at the 127 heroin-related overdoses and published a handful of stories that look at the epidemic plaguing York County and the nation. They also told some stories of those who lost their loved ones to the drug.
Stacey Burroughs, our behavioral health coordinator, and Erin Cosgrove-Findley, program manager of The SAFER Initiative, weighed in on the issue in the articles.
Take a look:
Treating patients with dignity is a top priority for Dr. Marie Kellett. She says this as she opens up a Family First Health office in Columbia, pointing to a service trip to rural Virginia and a severe car accident as reasons for her passion for helping rural, underserved communities.
In her fourth year of medical school, Kellett lost her left leg above the knee after she was hit by a drunk driver. She endured 12 surgeries, spent a month in a hospital’s intensive care unit and took two months away from school to recover.
During that time, Kellett had many visits with doctors. The ones who sat down with her and had a more personal bedside manner seemed like they were more supportive, Kellett recalled. It is why she believes so much now in sitting with patients and putting their needs first.
“I would have never asked to have been hit by a car, (but the result is) I am a better doctor, wife and mother,” Kellett said.
Kellett is running the first Family First Health office outside of York and Adams counties, where the the non-profit company operates. The office at 369 Locust St. formally opened Tuesday with a full schedule of patients and no issues, office staff told PennLive.
A nonprofit that operates five health centers in York and Adams County now has a presence in Lancaster County.
Family First Health opened Tuesday at 369 Locust Street in Columbia.
It offers family medicine and behavioral health services, accepting most insurance plans and using a sliding fee scale based on family size and income for the uninsured.
Damian Miller was one of 127 people who died from a heroin-related overdose in York County in 2014 and 2015. The York Daily Record compiled and analyzed information about each of those 127 people in an attempt to better understand who is dying from heroin-related overdoses and look for possible solutions to what many call an epidemic in York County.
His grandmother talks about losing Damian and how she didn’t want to believe that he was using heroin.
Family First Health’s Erin Cosgrove-Findley weighs in about options and resources for those in need and our SAFER Initiative.
Family First Health, which operates medical offices in York and Adams counties, has opened in downtown Columbia, Lancaster County, the York-based nonprofit’s first new location since 2009.
Opening an office on the other side of the Susquehanna River won’t benefit only people living in Lancaster County. It will also serve residents of eastern York County communities, including Wrightsville and Hellam Township.
Family First has seen a growing number of its patients come from those areas, as well as from Columbia and Mount Joy in Lancaster County, said Jenny Englerth, Family First’s CEO. Before, they would travel to Family First’s downtown York location.
Across the United States, nearly 62 million people — 20 percent of the U.S. population — experience inadequate or no access to primary care because of shortages in primary-care providers in their communities, according to the National Association for Health Centers and the Robert Graham Center.
This shortage of providers can affect rural and urban communities, insured and uninsured patients, and individuals of all backgrounds. So how do we address the need for health care in underserved, high-need areas?
In the fall, Family First Health will open a health center site in downtown Columbia, dedicated to meeting the specific needs of individuals in their own community. We know, based on a community assessment conducted by Millersville University in 2014, that although health services in Columbia are acceptable for those with insurance, affordable care can be hard to find for the uninsured.
The recession hammered York County and its identity as a manufacturing economy. The race is on to identify the jobs of York’s future.
Our CEO Jenny Englerth spoke to reporter Gary Haber about how this weighs in to patients struggling to support and maintain their health care and insurance.
Many patients are dealing with a budget “more and more stretched,” Englerth said. For some, that means choosing between seeing the dentist or getting a prescription filled.
Making sure pregnant women in Pennsylvania are protected against Zika is a top priority for Pennsylvania officials.
State Department of Health and Department of Environmental Protection officials came together Thursday to assemble 2,500 Zika prevention kits that will be distributed around the commonwealth.
“Zika has been connected to birth defects,” said Dr. Karen Murphy, Department of Health secretary. “There are currently 40 confirmed cases in Pennsylvania, all of which have been acquired outside the state in areas where the disease is rapidly spreading.”
Family First Health is one of the locations where people can find the prevention kit.
About one in eight HIV-positive Americans don’t realize they have the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Family First Health in York City offered free screenings Monday for National HIV Testing Day in hopes of helping those people.
“It’s been a great event,” said Shannon McElroy, Caring Together program manager with Family First. “We’ve been doing this for four years, walking the streets to hand out fliers and condoms and getting people to come in for free testing.”
