GRANTS PASS, Ore.– Oregon community health centers will be receiving a bit of help soon thanks to new grant funding that has been set aside by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Across the whole country, the department will be allocating $1 billion in opioid-related grants that will address the opioid epidemic. Oregon will receive $17 million of that to spread across all of it’s community health centers.
On Wednesday, Congressman Greg Walden – who supported the grants – met with members of Rogue Community Health in Medford to learn more about how this funding will help these health centers.
According to Dan Weiner, chief medical officer of Rogue Community Health, the funds their center will receive will not only help to expand their space to assist more people but it will also help expand the variety of help they can offer, not just opioid addiction.
“We can’t just address in a carved out, silo fashion, the substance use disorder,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to offer a comprehensive package.”
That package involves helping those with addiction treatment, mental health and substance abuse. The center says it is receiving $295,000 to put towards this wide range of services for the area.
“This is going to allow us to expand the space that we have to really allow for an integrated approach to delivering this care as well as a hire an increased level of staff,” said Weiner.
More than $1 million dollars have been allocated to health centers across southern Oregon. Several of the others receiving funding are:
Klamath Health Partnership, Inc. – $286,750
La Clinica Del Valle Family Health – $321,500
Siskiyou Community Health Center, Inc. – $223,522
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