WVU Medicine Wheeling, Reynolds Memorial Hospitals Get $2.2M for Behavioral Health Services
Shelley Hanson WHEELING -- WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital and WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital plan to expand outpatient behavioral health services to get more people the help they need for mental health and substance abuse issues.
Douglass Harrison, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital, said the hospital received a $2.25 million grant from the Renner Foundation to help expand the program.
"As we all know in this Ohio Valley, behavioral health services are grossly understaffed, and patients with behavioral health needs are underserved," Harrison said Monday.
"What we're hoping to roll out with this seed money is an integrative behavioral health service."
Part of the plan is to expand outpatient behavioral health services at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital, and embed the services within the hospitals' primary care network.
"One of the stigmas around behavioral health is when a person comes in they have no problem coming in for the physical medicine for an ailment or something, but there's a stigma around behavioral health," Harrison said.
"We have trouble making referrals for folks to get into a behavioral health program. What we're hoping is by bringing the services into the primary care office, we can reduce that barrier in what we call a warm handoff. We'll start to treat the behavioral health needs while they're on a visit with their physician so we can start treatment sooner."
Harrison said there is a dire need for more behavioral health care across the state.
"When Ohio Valley Medical Center closed it really created an impact for this community. Reynolds Memorial did step up at that time and built a 24-bed behavioral health inpatient unit, but what has been lacking is the outpatient component," Harrison said.
The program will start to roll out in the next few months after the needed personnel are hired. A portion of the grant money will also be used to renovate the new outpatient area located at the former Teletech building in Moundsville.
"This is really going to make a difference. This is really going to tackle some of the suffering we have in the Ohio Valley," said Deacon Paul Lim, vice president of Mission Integration for WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital.
Jessica Rine, assistant vice president of the Medical Park Foundation and Community Relations for Wheeling and Reynolds, said the Renner Foundation is a local group that reached out to the hospitals about the grant.
Since representatives from the Renner Foundation could not attend the announcement, a plaque was made in its honor and will be placed inside the new outpatient center.
The foundation was founded by the late Dr. R. Richard Renner of Hundred, W.Va., and his wife Jennie Steindorf Renner of Wheeling. This new endeavor will be named the Renner Behavioral Health Program.