Monarch’s CCBHC and Goshen Medical Partner to Offer Whole-Person Centered Care
Monarch’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) in Albemarle is partnering with Goshen Medical Center, one of the largest community health care centers in Eastern North Carolina, to offer physical health care services to the Stanly County community.
The joint venture began in April with the arrival of Goshen Medical Center’s mobile health unit at Monarch’s CCBHC in Albemarle, where it will be permanently stationed. The CCBHC provides an array of mental health, substance use disorder, housing and employment services. Goshen’s mobile unit offers medical services, the same as a physician’s medical practice, and will include physical exams, well and sick visits, preventative health care visits, vaccinations, blood and drug testing, and treatment for chronic medical problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Goshen Medical Center is a non-profit, Federally Qualified Health Center providing services to the uninsured, underinsured and insured populations.
The CCBHC’s Vice President of Integrated Care Monique Lucas believes the collaboration creates easy access to quality medical care that enhances Monarch’s whole-person centered care. “Providing access to health care is part of our mission and partnering with Goshen Medical and their staff allows the people we support convenient access,” she explained, adding that many times following mental health care visits people supported require additional primary health care testing or bloodwork. “With this partnership with Goshen, people we support can walk a few hundred feet from our CCBHC offices and receive the quality health care they need.”
Lucas said having the Goshen Medical mobile unit onsite is the perfect partnership because there can be a variety of obstacles for the people that Monarch supports that include lack of transportation, accessibility and availability: “We can now coordinate better care for the people we support that encompasses both mental and health care in one location.”
Goshen Medical Center’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Maynor calls Monarch a “key partner” in providing mental and physical health care, especially in the underserved rural areas of North Carolina: “Our focus is to provide primary care services, specifically medical, dental, outreach care and to collaborate with community partners so that our patients can have access to services that are better provided by our partners.”
Dr. Maynor explained that the collaboration helps both agencies. “By leveraging our services, together, we can work to meet the primary care, mental health and substance use disorder needs of our community,” he said, noting that general statistics indicate that greater than 50 percent of patients who seek primary care have mental health concerns that impact their medical issues. “This partnership will help identify needs and to provide accessible care as we work together to address the health care of Stanly and surrounding counties.”
Nurse Practitioner Sheila Brown, DNP, AGNP-C, who will oversee the mobile unit’s operations, is pleased to be part of the effort marrying Goshen’s physical health care with Monarch’s mental health services, knowing that the resource is needed. “Everyone is welcome and I am pleased to be able to serve my community,” she said.
Anyone wishing to schedule an appointment or who would like more information can call Goshen directly at (910) 557-9447. For more information on the CCBHC, visit their website page here and for additional details about Goshen Medical Center, connect to their website.
Posted on: Thursday June 10, 2021