Philadelphia health centers receive $1.2 million for behavioral health

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A federal agency has awarded $1.2 million to Philadelphia Community Health Centers to expand mental health care and substance use disorder treatment.

The money will be split into two $600,000 grants to the nonprofit Greater Philadelphia Health Action and the city Department of Public Health’s Ambulatory Health Services Division, which operates nine health centers. municipal health.

Both operate public health clinics that provide low-cost primary care and some behavioral health services to underinsured or uninsured people.

The funding is part of $7.7 million in grants, 13 in total, that will be distributed to community health organizations and programs throughout Pennsylvania.

Carole Johnson, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, said the goal of the money is to make behavioral health care more accessible where people already receive other types of health care.

“If we want to be able to meet the growing demand for mental health and substance use disorder services, then we need to utilize our full footprint where we provide health care,” Johnson said, “and integrating these services into primary care just makes perfect sense.”