Mobile unit provides addiction recovery, other medical services in Glasgow, Leitchfield, Hodgenville, Bardstown and Lebanon

By Heather Close Published August 7, 2023 DRUGS, FEATURED, HEALTH BUSINESS, HEALTH POLICY, YOUR HEALTH

A drug-recovery company based in Glasgow is using a mobile health-care unit and partnerships with businesses to bring an array of health services to people in the area, Michael Crimmins reports for Glasgow News 1.

The white-panel van, run by Intensive Health, part of Stepworks, is housed with “medical equipment such as gloves, AEDs [automatic external defibrillators], blood-drawing equipment and a small room in the back for telecommunication,” Crimmins reports.

Jonathan Fondow, the mobile unit’s data coordinator, told Crimmins that the unit offers both recovery services and general medical services in Glasgow, Hodgenville, Lebanon, Bardstown and Leitchfield, going to a different location on each of the five days it operates.

The unit provides medication-assisted treatment, mental-health counseling, Hepatitis C screening and treatment, HIV screenings, health assessments, primary care, and general medical services, according to its website. Fondow said the unit also offers peer-support services for people who need addiction care.

Fondow told Crimmins that they provide mental-health care via telehealth with two therapists in Elizabethtown, where the company began.

“We’re trying to put the stigma behind us, so someone that needs to talk to someone can also go in the back of this mobile unit and speak to therapists,” he said.

He added that patients who need further assistance would be referred to a pharmacy or healthcare service in the community. And, he said, they can help people with gas cards or transportation if needed.

Crimmins reports that the mobile unit has been a great service to homeless people, who often don’t have medical insurance.

“So far, since we started last week, around 70 percent of our patients are homeless,” Fondow said. “They have nothing except their backpack that they’re carrying.”

According to Fondow, Crimmins writes, “The mobile unit is run through a four-year federal grant of $2 million to help the people, primarily in rural areas, that are without insurance and either are forced to forgo treatment or pay entirely out of pocket. In that same vein, he said, a goal of the unit was to get patients at least started on the path to Medicaid.”

This mobile health-care model will soon expand in Kentucky via the state-federal Medicaid program.

In mid-July, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced that Kentucky will join five other states in providing mobile Medicaid crisis intervention teams later this year, Sarah Ladd reports for Kentucky Lantern. It will take effect Oct. 1 and funding will come from the American Rescue Act of 2021.