Florida Atlantic University’s Community Health Center operated by FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing has received a $600,000 grant from The Celia Lipton Farris and Victor W. Farris Foundation, Inc. to increase access to integrated nurse-led primary and behavioral care. Strategically located in the heart of West Palm Beach, FAU’s Westgate center serves a high minority and low-income community, where only 18 percent of its low income residents have access to health centers.
With the grant, FAU’s College of Nursing will increase its hours of operation and expand outreach to screen for mental illness. The project will integrate behavioral health assessment, screening processes and interventions into the center’s existing nurse-led practice. Patients at the center currently receive examinations, diagnostic tests, prescriptions, and follow-up care.
The inter-professional team will include a nurse care manager, social worker, patient care coordinator as well as nurse practitioners and physicians to ensure shared decision-making care. In addition to primary, diabetes and mental health care services, the center will reach into the community to provide comprehensive screenings, and tele-behavioral and diabetes services at rural and urban health care partner sites. Team members will be trained to use mental health screening tools and telehealth services for remote and rural areas, and will address issues related to depression, anxiety, substance use, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. Furthermore, spirituality and cultural beliefs, language preference, trauma symptoms, and personalized medicine such as pharmacogenomics will be utilized to ensure a comprehensive approach for the patient’s health issues.
The center also will establish an integrated behavioral inter-professional practice to teach health profession students the competencies, practice knowledge and cultural sensitivity skills that are necessary to serve in community health care settings.
Florida Atlantic University’s Community Health Center operated by FAU’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing has received a $600,000 grant from The Celia Lipton Farris and Victor W. Farris Foundation, Inc. to increase access to integrated nurse-led primary and behavioral care. Strategically located in the heart of West Palm Beach, FAU’s Westgate center serves a high minority and low-income community, where only 18 percent of its low income residents have access to health centers.
