Rural Health Care Services Outreach Grant Program - The Northern Valley Mobile Integrated Health Care Program will address barriers to health care services for residents of the Northern Valley of Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough in Alaska who are medically underserved and vulnerable. Sunshine Community Health Center (SCHC) is the lead applicant and will oversee the consortium. Members of the consortium include Mat-Su Borough Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Connect Mat-Su, and LINKS Resource Center. Unique needs that impact health status in the service area include transportation barriers, food insecurity, housing insecurity, lack of recreational options, high concentrations of older adults, large population of persons with low-income, and high rates of unemployment. Transportation remains the most common barrier for accessing health care. As a result, people over subscribe to local EMS for assistance with nonemergency health issues. The Northern Valley Mobile Integrated Health Care Program increase access to health care by deploying a mobile health care team that will provide intervention services such as preventative screenings, immunizations, assessment of social determinants of health, and chronic care education and management through home visits and telehealth appointments. This project will increase access to health care, reduce avoidable emergency department visits and hospitalizations, and improve health outcomes for this population.
