A new primary care clinic for clients of Burrell Behavioral Health and underserved community members has opened, thanks to a partnership between Burrell Behavioral Health at Stephens Lake and Preferred Family Healthcare.
The Clarity Healthcare clinic opened last week in the Burrell Behavioral Health Stephens Lake location, to provide a range to resources and treatments, including child care, elderly care, family care, vaccines, and chronic care management.
“Being able to be co-located you are able to offer more handoffs,” said Christy Power, a vice president of operations at Preferred Family Healthcare and Clarity Healthcare.
“A patient may come in having a mental health issue and the provider that is currently seeing them can consult with the primary care provider on any other concerns that the patient may have in that visit,” Power said.
The Burrell Health Clinic is a behavioral health center designed to offer adult specialty services and help with case management.
With the implementation of the new Clarity Healthcare clinic, the Burrell Behavioral Health can now provide primary health care for current clients and new patients in need of wrap-around services and layers of support.
“One of the things that we find with folks that have mental health conditions, is that they typically have chronic care conditions as well,” said Power. “Being able to provide a primary care setting right there, where they are comfortable already receiving services, we think will be life-changing for those patients.”
Although the clinic is intended for current patients at Burrell Behavioral Health, because of its status as a Federally Qualified Health Center (or FQHC), the clinic will be open to everyone regardless of age and insurance status.
Burrell Behavioral Health and Preferred Family Healthcare began their joint venture together on Jan. 1st of this year. Both companies have paired up under parent company Brightli, as separate entities working towards a common goal of expanding the services they offer within the state of Missouri and meeting the needs of the communities.