http://www.mdjonline.com/view/full_stor ... 2C0&ref=nfby Marcus E. Howard
mhoward@mdjonline.com The Marietta Daily Journal
September 30, 2010
Cobb Community Services Board Director of Rehabilitation and Recovery Services Debbie Strotz, center, stands with West End Medical Center Physician Assistant Lorenzo Anderson, left, and client James Shoemaker of Marietta inside the West End Medical Mobile Unit in Austell. Funds from the Kaiser Foundation Grant awarded to Cobb CSB pays for a partnership with Atlanta-based West End Medical Center to provide a range of primary health care services to clients through a physician and assistants. <br>Photo by Laura Moon
Cobb Community Services Board Director of Rehabilitation and Recovery Services Debbie Strotz, center, stands with West End Medical Center Physician Assistant Lorenzo Anderson, left, and client James Shoemaker of Marietta inside the West End Medical Mobile Unit in Austell. Funds from the Kaiser Foundation Grant awarded to Cobb CSB pays for a partnership with Atlanta-based West End Medical Center to provide a range of primary health care services to clients through a physician and assistants.
Photo by Laura Moon
AUSTELL - For six months, James Shoemaker of Marietta has received treatment from the Cobb County Community Services Board, a public agency that provides mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services.
Unemployed and uninsured, he says he has already received helpful assistance from CSB. But thanks to a $66,000 grant from the Kaiser Foundation that CSB received earlier this year, Shoemaker and other CSB clients have begun getting additional medical care.
The grant allows CSB to partner with Atlanta-based West End Medical Center to provide a range of primary health care services to clients through a physician and assistants. West End's mobile unit is now visiting CSB's outpatient site at 6133 Love St. in Austell once a week for about five hours. It typically sees about 20 clients.
"I'm a client here at The Circle for some issues that were going on in my life," said Shoemaker, 55, a former pilot. "Thankfully, I came here. Under their guidance and teaching to me, there has been a great improvement of myself."
The CSB is funded by the state, county, Medicaid and Medicare revenue, grants and donations. It provides services to about 12,000 people annually.
Some clients receive Medicaid and Medicare, and others are indigent, according to agency. Clients, who are often referred, suffer from such issues as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The medical services they're receiving focus on cardiometabolic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, said Debbie Strotz, director of CSB rehabilitative and recovery services.
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Without the grant, the CSB said its clients would not receive the increased access to medical services.
Patients with behavioral health issues are in need of integrated medical services, according to the staff at CSB, which treats clients via The Circle, its psychosocial rehabilitative program.
"Research came out that showed people with severe mental illness were dying 25 years earlier than the general population," Strotz said. "What needs to be done is to treat the whole person; so the goal is to integrate their primary care needs with their behavioral care needs."
West End's mobile unit is equipped with two exam rooms, a waiting area and television monitors, said Terrence Montgomery, the mobile unit's driver.
"It is truly a blessing for the people who otherwise could not receive medical care here or this attention," Shoemaker said. "So it covers both sides, the mental and also the physical side."
Copyright 2010 The Marietta Daily Journal. All rights reserved.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Healthy dose of cash
Good friend of mine doing her part in Georgia. Had her permission to show this article. Not only is she working with adults, she is busting her butt on the front lines trying to get proper care for children also.
Just trying to show that Georgia is not totally laying down on the job when it comes to helping people.
