Katy Trail Community Health Center gets grant

The Katy Trail Community Health Center received a three-year grant that will be used in the development of an integrated services center in Warsaw.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the health center the Rural Health Outreach Grant for expanding services in the Benton County area. The grant will provide $150,000 in 2009, $125,000 in 2010 and $100,000 in 2011 to help develop Harbor Village, a center that will integrate services between Care Connection for Aging Services, Pathways Community Behavioral Healthcare and Katy Trail Community Health.

Chris Stewart, executive director of Katy Trail Community Health, said the purpose of the center is to ensure better access to primary care, behavioral health services and senior center programs all under one roof.

“The key objective of this project is ensuring better access to primary care and behavioral health services for the entire population, but with specific interest in the senior population,” Stewart said.

The grant money will go toward hiring a psychiatrist, case manager, care coordinator, project evaluator and a part-time facilitator to manage the coordination among the three organizations.

Ray Diekmeier, executive director of Care Connection for Aging Services, said the Harbor Village project grew out of an initiative seeking to find a new location for the Warsaw Senior Center. After years of searching, the organization decided to partner with the health center and Pathways to bring several services to a new facility.

“If we combine all of this into a single facility, we will put together something that would bring a whole host of services in one location,” Diekmeier said.

When Harbor Village is completed, people will have access to treatment of dental, medical and mental health issues along with programs delivered through the senior center, including congregate meals, computer labs and health and wellness programs, Diekmeier said.

Irv Jensen, with the Benton County Community Development Corporation, said the groups working on the project are trying to reflect changing needs for the retired population. With baby boomers coming upon retirement age in the coming years, they will expect services that supplement their lifestyles, Jensen said.

“Retirement doesn’t mean the same thing it has in the past. We are trying to be innovative with this and set it up as a model for other centers,” Jensen said. “We want to make sure we have services that meet the demand as that demand changes over the next 20 or 30 years.”

Diekmeier said Benton County will be an ideal location for Harbor Village because of the large retired population who have made their homes in the area. He said the ability to provide all the proposed services at one location will help promote the region as a good community in which to settle down.

“It will be a big plus for the community to have all these services available here,” Diekmeier said.

Stewart said Benton County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the state for people over age 60. With no major hospital serving the area, Stewart said the growing retired population will require additional facilities and more diverse services than are currently offered in the area.

“The key is to coordinate care to prevent people from needing hospitalization,” Stewart said.

U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton welcomed the grant, saying it will improve health care access for residents at a level that is competitive with surrounding metropolitan areas.

“It is often more difficult for rural Americans to receive the same access to health care as our neighbors in the cities and suburbs. That is why I am so pleased that the Katy Trail Community Health Clinic will receive grant funding from the Department of Health and Human Services,” Skelton said. “This funding will help the clinic to expand services and provide better access to health care for people living in the area.”

By the time the grant expires in three years, center coordinators intend to establish a foundation and apply for more grants to develop revenue sources that can sustain the project in the long term. In addition to fundraisers, donations and grants, funding for the center will be split among the three organizations contributing to its development.

“The expectation is by the end of that three years, we will sustain it together,” Stewart said. “Our hope is that by that time we are working in one location, so that overcoming the facility barriers will be solved.”

Stewart said while all three organizations are committed to supporting Harbor Village in the future, the challenge will be keeping up with expected growth. The number of people treated at the Sedalia center has increased about 30 percent for each of first three years since it opened, and patient levels are expected to continue that trend in 2009. Stewart expects the center’s current operations in Warsaw will easily double once Harbor Village is established.

Jensen said coordinators have selected a site and are currently searching for an architectural partner for the project. The organizations have established a “very aggressive timeline” for the project that sets the summer of 2011 as the target completion date.
“We have a great deal of work to do in a short period of time,” Jensen said.