Something to Smile About

Upper Valley Medical Center (UVMC) continues its partnership with six other Miami County health-related organizations to improve local residents’ health and well-being through grant funding.

In 2016, Community Benefit Grant recipients included Hospice of Miami County, Health Partners Free Clinic, Miami County Dental Clinic, Miami County Recovery Council, and Samaritan Behavioral Health Inc. Miami County Public Health received a Community Support Grant for its triennial community health assessment.

“The UVMC Board of Directors is very pleased to be able to provide these grants through the UVMC Community Benefit Fund,” said Rowan Nickol, MD, chair of the UVMC Board of Directors. The fund reflects UVMC’s mission to support local programs that serve the health needs of the community.

“We are committed to our responsibility as a good neighbor in the community we serve,” said Becky Rice, UVMC president. “These grant recipient organizations are critical to providing more access to important health care services for our local uninsured, underinsured and underserved populations.”

Health Partners Free Clinic is the only free clinic in Miami County for the uninsured and underinsured. Through the Miami County Dental Clinic Traveling Smiles program, more than 6,000 dental visits with school children have been made.

Hospice of Miami County’s services include a self-contained hospice unit at UVMC.

Samaritan Behavioral Health Inc. (SBHI) and Miami County Recovery Council (MCRC) have had a three-way partnership with UVMC since 2013. The partnership offers an integrated approach to behavioral health services and to whole-

person health.

From a medical office building in Piqua, SBHI and MCRC provide Miami County residents with child, adolescent, and adult counseling services, psychiatric care, and case management services, as well as mental health and substance

abuse screenings.

Additionally, MCRC provides a community care liaison who makes care connections on behalf of behavioral health patients being discharged from the UVMC emergency department or the inpatient psychiatric unit. The goal is to reduce return visits to the emergency department and to inpatient psychiatric services within 30 days by linking individuals to community resources and behavioral health treatment. The program recently hired a nurse practitioner

to provide primary health care to SBHI’s behavioral health patients.

“Without the financial support of UVMC, we would not have been able to positively impact so many lives, to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families and the Miami County community, and to fulfill our mission to touch, teach, and heal,” said Sue McGatha, president of Samaritan Behavioral Health.