SPRINGDALE -- The low-cost Community Clinic is expanding its Fayetteville location and has added a behavioral health care provider to meet growing patient needs, its CEO said Tuesday.
The health care provider opened its Fayetteville clinic near Interstate 49 and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in 2015 and sees about 3,000 patients annually, CEO Kathy Grisham said. The plan is to double it, going from 12 exam rooms to 24, adding 5,000 square feet, as well as radiology services. The project could begin in the next few weeks.
"The need is there, and we feel we need to get out ahead of it," she said.
Grisham announced the move at Community Clinic's annual celebration of National Health Center Week, which recognizes the local, state and federal money and support that sustains the clinic and hundreds of others like it throughout the country.
Besides the physical expansion, Grisham said Community Clinic this month brought on an advanced practice registered nurse for psychiatric services.
Community Clinic offers primary, dental, behavioral and other health care at a sliding fee scale for those in or near poverty and accepts patients regardless of ability to pay. It runs more than a dozen offices in Benton and Washington counties, including several in public schools that are free for children. Some 36,000 patients go through its doors each year, according to its leaders.
Dr. Terry Sutterfield, chief medical officer, said most of its patients are from minority communities and most of its staff members speak at least two languages. Refugees fleeing war and persecution in central Africa and other countires have been among its patients.
The Fayetteville office opened thanks to a $585,000 grant from the Endeavor Foundation in Springdale. Officials at the time estimated 6,000 patients could come through each year. The numbers so far haven't reached that level, but Grisham said predicting patient load is always tricky, and the number so far is enough to warrant the expansion. It hasn't been put out for bid yet, so the cost is uncertain.
Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan was unavailable for comment by phone Tuesday evening because of city meetings.
On the psychiatry side, Community Clinic about a decade ago joined behavioral health with primary care so someone getting a checkup could also receive mental health services if needed, Grisham said. A psychiatrist joined the organization about two years ago and is booked solid for four months. The psychiatric nurse should help manage all those cases, she said, calling the need huge.
The integration of mental health and primary care is catching on in the health care industry as a way to reach patients who might not see a therapist otherwise, according to a 2012 report from the University of Washington. The Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks began offering mental health services in primary settings in 2010, for example, to try to get around the stigma of seeking mental care.
Community leaders and researchers for years have said the same stigma and need for mental health care can be particularly pronounced among the Pacific Islander and Hispanic communities that live near and use Community Clinic's locations. History, culture and other factors all play a role in the issue, they've said.
Melisa Laelan, founder of the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese, said Tuesday she hadn't known Community Clinic offers behavioral health services and would start referring community members that way. The coalition's office is next door to the clinic's Springdale location.
Marshallese people with mental illness often can't afford care for long, Laelan added.
"What usually happens is they're just left out there," she said.
NW News on 08/15/2018