A federal grant will help St. Luke’s University Health Network expand care for medically underserved populations in Pennsylvania’s rural Carbon and Schuylkill counties.
St. Luke’s said in a release that it plans to use the $1.94 million, 5-year grant from the Primary Care Training and Enhancement Residency Training in Street Medicine initiative to develop a Street Medicine Academic Tract within its Carbon (Rural) Family Medicine Residency program.
The grant will help St. Luke’s enhance rural family medicine residency training, equipping residents to care to individuals facing homelessness and opioid addiction.
“Meeting patients where they are takes special training and skills to help reduce barriers to healthcare,” said Danielle Godfrey, St. Luke’s manager for Graduate Medical Education Rural Programs. “Our rural family medicine residents will learn how to best provide primary and preventative care in places like rural shelters, food pantries, in mobile outreach units and in other community settings that are often underserved.”
She said in such counties, there’s an under-appreciated need, and there are more and more individuals experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.
St. Lukes’s Carbon (Rural) Family Medicine Residency program already features some street-medicine training, but the grant will allow it to develop a full Street Medicine Academic Tract.
Residents will participate in structured clinical rotations that include telemedicine plus working in shelters and mobile-outreach units. They will also receive expanded behavioral health and addiction medicine training.
The grant will also allow St. Luke’s to establish Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs). The MLPs will train residents in legal advocacy and help patients secure Medicaid, disability benefits, and housing stability services.
About 100 organizations applied for the grant. St. Luke’s was one of 24 to receive funding.
The Primary Care Training and Enhancement Residency Training program is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,946,253 with 100 percent funded by HRSA/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by HRSA/HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit https://www.hrsa.gov/.