HRSA Announces National Health Service Corps Awards of Excellence

HRSA is honoring three clinics with its 2007 National Health Corps (NHSC) Awards of Excellence:

• Bison Community Clinic, Bison, SD
• Tropical Texas Behavioral Health, Edinburg, TX
• West Tennessee Women’s Health Center, Brownsville, TN

The annual awards recognize clinics and NHSC clinicians who have markedly improved health outcomes in their communities by promoting vital community partnerships and health education, preventive care, team building and enrichment programs.  Entries were received from across the Nation and judged by an independent panel.  A brief description of the awardees follows:

• Bison Community Clinic – Located in the frontier area of Bison, South Dakota, the clinic provides care to the community of ranching families in the surrounding area.  Notable accomplishments this year include strengthening of existing partnerships with the Ronald McDonald mobile dental unit and Delta Dental.  Through this partnership children receive dental services that they otherwise could not afford and/or would have to travel 150 miles to access.  Many of the children that seek dental services cannot afford dental insurance and in those cases, all of the dental care is done for free through the Ronald McDonald/Delta Dental dental-care foundation.  The clinic is also recognized for their accomplishment in developing partnerships with local and state disaster preparedness organizations.  Corps provider Dan Kvale, PA-C attended classes sponsored by the state of South Dakota for disaster readiness and brought this information back to the Bison Clinic to be incorporated into its policies and procedures.  Later that year, Mr. Kvale was asked to become part of the Perkins County Disaster Preparedness Team, and applied for and received a $1,500 grant for the purchase of emergency medical equipment for the clinic.

• Tropical Texas Behavioral Health – As the first Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation (MHMR) Center in the state of Texas, Tropical Texas Behavioral Health (TTBH) began as a small operation located in the basement of an old hospital building with a vision of effective treatment and recovery.  With that vision in mind, in the summer of 1967 with only six staff members and an enormous agenda for the citizens of the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the Center opened its doors and began the provision of services.  Today, TTBH is the sixth largest of 39 community MHMR centers in Texas.  Through funding from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, TTBH implemented a Cultural Adaptation Initiative.  Through this initiative TTBH has modified and implemented specific, culturally sensitive evidence-based psychiatric practices to ensure the most efficient and effective clinical impact to TTBH’s primarily Hispanic client populations.  To improve the overall health wellness of the community, TTBH developed several health education and preventive programs, including an educational program for community “promotoras,” community workers who provide a bilingual liaison between health care providers and clients. 

• West Tennessee Women’s Health Center – Providing healthcare to women plagued with poverty in the Brownsville, TN area has been a challenge for Corps provider Kristie Wilburn-Wren, M.D.  Her practice is often the last resort for women who are unable to pay for their healthcare.  Through affiliations with local hospitals, health departments, churches, and schools, Dr. Wilburn-Wren has been able to educate the residents of Brownsville on women’s health issues.  This year she participated in a Health Education Forum sponsored by the Haywood County branch of the NAACP, and conducted a lecture on the latest information on the human papilloma virus and the new cervical cancer vaccine.