Featured Grantee
Citizens Memorial Hospital
Citizens Memorial is a rural health care network that includes a hospital, 14 rural health clinics, and 6 long term care facilities serving 7 counties in Southwest Missouri. This region has a population of 150,000 rural residents who reside in small, agricultural communities. Many services center around Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, Polk County. Like most rural communities, many residents face economic challenges and have limited availability of services and support. Many women in rural communities experience challenges obtaining obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN) care, perinatal services, and postpartum support. Women who require mental health or substance use services face additional challenges.
In 2023, a consortium of local stakeholders convened to address availability of treatment and services, spearheaded by the Citizens Memorial Addiction Recovery Program (ARP). The ARP is an outpatient program that offers peer support, medication-assisted treatment, and counseling, and serves approximately 400 patients per month. Strategic planning meetings included representatives from public health, law enforcement, OB-GYN providers, recovery coaches, first responders, family division, and community-based organizations. The consortium’s goal was to develop strategies to implement an integrative approach to care that offers mobile services to reach patients in their home. This integrative approach was possible by braiding together two projects that were federally supported through grants: the HRSA Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome II grant and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Rural Workforce grant. These funds enabled Citizens Memorial to develop a Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) network, utilizing community paramedics to offer treatment and primary care within the home. In addition to the community paramedics, a certified lactation consultant with 30+ years of experience in maternal health, and a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner offer in-home care. Patients are referred to the MIH program and a community resource specialist coordinates their appointment times and resources.
The lactation consultant has received specialized training to provide care for women who are high-risk or who have complex needs. The program uses several tools to reach women who may not otherwise receive care, including social needs screenings, perinatal care, lactation consulting, and universal screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment, or SBIRT. A non-judgmental approach, compassionate screening practices, and linking women to additional resources like a certified peer support specialist (who also makes house calls!) have been a successful recipe for reaching women in need.
To date, over 445 patients have been served through the mobile integrated health program, 106 patients visits are with the OB lactation consultant. Patients in need of other resources like transportation or substance use recovery services are referred through a warm hand-off. In addition to providing timely, appropriate care, this program has also achieved a cost-savings of over $4,500 per patient.
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