Increasing Access
The article below is taken from the VCU News Center’s website. To access the original page, use the following link: http://www.news.vcu.edu/news/Increasing_Access
Increasing Access
VCU nursing students, faculty and staff provide much-needed health care services at a new neighborhood resource center.
4/18/2011
A new community center in downtown Richmond delivers convenient and affordable health care to an underserved neighborhood, thanks to a collaboration between Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Nursing, the Richmond City Health District, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the Mosby Tenant Council.
Mosby Resource Center, located just blocks from VCU in an RRHA community, takes a community- and relationship-based approach to promoting health and wellness, offering residents a variety of services, including health screenings, checkups and health and nutrition education.
“There’s a lot of people out there who don’t have the means to get to the doctor and don’t have proper health care,” said Aquanetta Scott, vice president of the Mosby Tenant Council, a partner organization. “The new clinic will be a great addition for everybody in the neighborhood as well as the surrounding areas.”
The new Mosby Resource Center joins existing resource centers in RRHA’s Creighton, Fairfield and Whitcomb communities, where VCU School of Nursing students provide clinical services as a part of their required nursing school course work.
“The VCU School of Nursing has been working closely with the Richmond City Health District (RCHD) and RRHA since 2009 to expand the resource centers,” said Stephanie L. Ferguson, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, director of the Community Nursing Organization. “Mosby Court is very special because it is the largest one and it’s located near the School of Nursing. We will be able to help them do more than one clinic per week.”
Partner organizations like the RCHD, Fan Free Clinic and Peter Paul Development Center will offer AIDS testing, family planning, teen peer support, tutoring assistance, budget management and community resource information. The Richmond Memorial Health Foundation and the Virginia Health Care Foundation are providing financial support for the center.
“The goal is to help the citizens in the community not only improve their health care, but also learn how to navigate the health systems in the Richmond metro area,” Ferguson said. “I hope we will have a positive impact on the community by providing increased access to prevention, wellness and chronic care management services that will address hypertension and diabetes- just to name a few.”