Community center in Holley will begin to offer healthcare services

Photos by Ginny Kropf: From left, family physician Nancy Ciavarri, Community Action’s Director of Operations Jackie Gardner, director of community services and reporting Katrina Chaffee, case manager and health coach Jeanette Worsley and director Renee Hungerford pose in the space set aside in the Holley Community Center for a health clinic.

HOLLEY – A grant from the Finger Lakes Performing Provider System has enabled Community Action to offer health care from the Community Center in Holley.

On Thursday morning the program was presented to a full house of local citizens who regularly take advantage of programs offered at the center, including daily lunch.

Renee Hungerford, director of Community Action, shows a video outlining her “Axis of Care” program to a lunch crowd Wednesday at the Holley Community Center.

Community Action’s director Renee Hungerford described her “Axis of Care” program which received an $84,000 grant to provide a free health clinic, including visits from Oak Orchard Health’s mobile health unit.

The first visit by the mobile health unit is scheduled for Aug. 24. It will provide lab services and have a nurse practitioner.

Tele-health will be available in both the Albion office and Holley center.

The health coach in Holley will be able to do referrals, coach clients on proper diets and provide guidance on insurance.

“It will be a one-stop shop,” Hungerford said.

The need for a health clinic in Holley was identified when Hungerford asked the Holley Community Center manager Debbie Rothman what other services Community Action could offer.

The primary answer was “healthcare,” Hungerford said. She added that it has been proven the social determinates of good health are food, healthcare and a roof over your head.

“We have the ability to help provide that,” Hungerford said.

Case manager and health coach Jeanette Worsley, left, chats with Beverly Selden of Holley, a frequent participant in the daily meal program at the Holley Community Center.

She said Orleans County has the third lowest health outcomes out of 62 counties in New York State. There are 13,450 patients for each primary care provider, she said.

Working in cooperation with Community Action to provide healthcare will be Oak Orchard Community Health, Orleans Community Health and GCASA. A peer counselor from GCASA will be on site once a week. They will partner with Orleans Community Health to provide tele-health visits.

There will be a fee for health visits, based on income. For those who have no health care insurance, someone will be on site to help clients sign up for Medicaid or health insurance.

Case manager and health coach Jeanette Worsley will post a schedule when the Holley clinic will be staffed.

One regular visitor to the Holley Community Center who is happy to see this new health program started is Beverly Selden. She comes for dinner every day, she said.

“It gets me out to be with people, and I help where they need me,” Selden said. “It provides a nourishing meal to a lot of people who might not otherwise get one. It has gotten me through the last five years of my life. I had fallen into bankruptcy and had medical problems. They supported me during it all. The medical clinic will benefit a lot of people. I will take advantage of it any way I can.”

Rothman, with help from her assistant Rachel Escobar, said they serve an average of 40 people daily, and recently had a record 71 attend.