Business makes second attempt at becoming a community health center

WASILLA -- Behavioral Health Services of Mat-Su (formerly LifeQuest) has the potential to become a community health center -- a private, nonprofit medical source for all of the community, especially those who are uninsured or underinsured.

Community health centers, or CHCs, were established by the federal government in 1963 as part of civil-rights legislation. CHCs must serve the medical needs of all people in the community, instead of just serving the health needs of individual patients.

"It's really important to look at our health-care system in the Valley," said Chas St. George, director of community development at Behavioral Health. "There are people who work every day who are betting on their health because they don't have the means to afford insurance."

CHCs do not provide free health care, but cannot refuse health care to anyone, and provide a sliding scale based on income for individuals to pay for the services they receive.

St. George said the 35 acres of land on which Behavioral Health sits is a perfect site for a complete wellness center, which integrates mental health with mainstream health issues, lessening the stigma attached to receiving care for mental-health issues.

"We are looking at how we can blend these two practices together," St. George said.

There are currently about 50 CHCs in Alaska. To become a CHC, Behavioral Health must go through a grant process with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration and meet specific CMC criteria.

Behavioral Health management went through the process last spring and the organization was denied CHC status, but received an 85-percent proficiency score, meaning that 85 percent of the requirements to become a CHC had been met.

The mental-health-care facility management submitted a new grant application in June. Behavioral Health should find out the status of the application in the next couple of months.

What makes a CHC work from a mental-health perspective, St. George said, is that an individual receiving care at a CHC can discreetly ask for mental- health help without having to announce it by walking into a mental-health clinic.

"We can transfer an individual to a behavioral health setting without a mental-illness stigma," St. George said.

Nearly 70 percent of people who walk into a primary-care physician's office have some kind of mental-health issue they are dealing with.

If it became a CHC, Behavioral Health would specifically serve the needs of those in the Meadow Lakes and greater Wasilla area, but would be available to anyone in the Valley in need of health care.