Grant Would Provide Prenatal, OB Care At County Health Department

The Crawford County Health Department has signed a memorandum with Your Community Health Center in Rolla, which is pursuing a federal grant that would provide prenatal and obstetric care to county residents.

The services would be available one day per week at both the Crawford and Dent County health departments.

Health Department Administrator Honor Evans informed county commissioners on November 19 of the intention/

“They would write the grant and use our facility to provide care,” Evans said. “It would be their doctor and nurse and they would pay a small rental fee per month for use of electric and general office supplies.”

Evans said this would be a great addition since the health department was forced to cut its women’s wellness program several years ago.

Not only would prenatal care be provided, but women would be able to access preventative care as well.

Evans said the prenatal care would be “comprehensive”, but exclude delivery and high-risk.

“We have the clientele for it,” she said. “We lost our doctor who was our only provider close by to do obstetric care.”

The grant would run three years and Evans said Your Community Health Center will not find out whether it was obtained until July 2020 at the earliest.

Behaviorial Grant

Evans said the county should learn in December whether Your Community received a grant that would provide a social worker at the health department.

In September, Evans told the commission that Your Community proposed that Crawford and Dent counties join in “semi-together” on the grant, which would add behavioral health services

Crawford County would receive a social worker and community resource coordinator twice per week.

County residents would have access to counseling services “at no cost” to the county, Evans said. 

That grant also would run for three years.