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A federal agency awarded $1.2 million to Philadelphia Community Health Centers to expand mental health care and substance use disorder treatment.
The funds will be split into two $600,000 grants and will go to the nonprofit organization Greater Philadelphia Health Action and the city Department of Public Health’s Department of Ambulatory Health Services, which manages nine city health centers.
Both companies operate public health clinics that provide low-cost primary care and some behavioral health services to the underinsured and uninsured.
The funding is part of a total of 13 $7.7 million grants that will be distributed to community health agencies and programs across Pennsylvania.
Carol Johnson, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, said the purpose of the funding is to make behavioral health care more accessible in areas where people already receive other types of care. .
“To be able to meet this time of increased demand for mental health and substance use disorder services, we need to leverage our entire footprint of health care delivery locations,” Johnson said. Integrating these services into primary care makes a lot of sense. ”
