ROCHESTER, N.Y. – St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center is hitting the road with a new mobile health clinic that will provide on-the-spot medical care in Monroe County’s neediest neighborhoods. The traveling clinic comes at a time when the federal government is considering major cuts to the Medicaid program.
“I was once a patient at this center, many years ago at a time in my life when I felt I had nowhere to turn,” says Monroe County Legislator Rose Bonnick, a former patient at St. Joseph’s. “I leaned on that center at a time when I was so broken and they provided me with the care and the mental health services that I desperately needed at that time.”
For decades, patients have had to come to the center which is located along South Avenue in the City of Rochester for care but now the center can come to them.
St. Joseph’s bought and will staff the mobile health clinic with a $2.7 million ARPA grant awarded by Monroe County. The van will go where people live, work, play and pray specifically targeting neighborhoods where there are high levels of poverty, chronic health conditions and limited access to health care services.
With the largest cuts to Medicaid ever on the horizon, Executive Director Jennifer Sahrle is certain the van will be busy. “My biggest fear is that as folks lose insurance, they’re going to need services so we’re going to have to and be called upon and will step in to serve those folks, however it’s a situation with having to do more with less,” Sahrle says.
Congressman Joe Morelle (D) Rochester, has made his disgust at the proposed Medicaid cuts included in the “big, beautiful bill” well-known. “Contrast that with what we’re doing here today. This is what a degree of federal investment from the American Rescue Plan to the county expands the mission of bringing quality health care to people,” Rep. Morelle says.
St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center already reaches about 1,600 people every year. With the new van, they’re sure that number will rise to well over 2,000.
“This is equity in action, this is about meeting people where they are with compassion and without judgment,” says Monroe County Executive Adam Bello.
Bonnick knows that sentiment well. “Today, I stand before you as a testament of what can happen when investments like these are made,” she says.
The van will be staffed by both paid employees and retired nurses and doctors who donate their time.
In addition to the new mobile unit, ARPA money also supported infrastructure upgrades at St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center, including a new roof and technology upgrades.
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