Community Health Center of Cape Cod hosted an Opening Reception and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at their newly-renovated Bourne office at 123 Waterhouse Road on Tuesday, August 15. The expansion from 2,200 square feet to nearly 10,000 square feet was designed to meet the increasing demand for residential access to primary care, behavioral health, dental and pharmacy services. More than 60 individuals gathered to celebrate the opening of the expanded space, including Community Health Center of Cape Cod board members, donors, staff and friends, along with community partners.
The expanded space in the Bourne office will include dental services, including preventative exams and restorative care; a public pharmacy providing access to affordable medication; improved office space for increased patient privacy and comfort; expanded Primary Care, Behavioral Health and Addictions Treatment services and dedicated space for prevention and wellness education to help patients understand and manage their health.
Following tours of the new location and a ribbon cutting ceremony, the Health Center’s Chief Executive Officer Karen Gardner introduced and led a panel discussion with local leaders on substance use. Panelists included Massachusetts State Representative Randy Hunt, CEO of Duffy Health Center Heidi Romans Nelson, Bourne Deputy Fire Chief Joseph J. Carrara, Senior Project Manager at Barnstable County Department of Human Services Vaira Harik, and Medication-Assisted Treatment Nurse Coordinator of Community Health Center of Cape Cod Jennifer Monaghan.
Ms. Gardner started the discussion by asking each panelist to address what their organizations are doing to combat addiction. “The two bookends to addiction are prevention and recovery, and they are the most difficult,” Ms. Harik said. All the panelists echoed the sentiment that early intervention and prevention in schools is key in fighting the addiction program on Cape Cod.
In 2014, Former Governor Deval Patrick declared opioid abuse an epidemic. Heroin use and mortality from overdose has nearly-doubled since 2012. Eight percent of Cape residents are now addicted to alcohol and 6,700 residents in our community have died from opioid abuse in the last 10 years. Representative Randy Hunt stated that it’s going to be a challenge to fight the epidemic if we don’t use our time, effort and money at the State level to introduce prevention programs in the schools.
Bourne Deputy Fire Chief Carrara emphasized the need to support the Substance Free Coalition. “We are on the front lines,” Carrara said, adding that the Bourne Fire Department fields an average of 5,000 calls and 100 overdoses in Bourne a year.
For more information about expanded Addictions Treatment at Community Health Center
Community Health Center of Cape Cod is organizing a number of events from August 13-19 to celebrate National Health Center Week. Each year, health centers across the nation celebrate the work and services they provide to populations in need within their communities on designated days during the week. As the country’s largest primary care network, Health Centers now serve as the health care home for over 25 million Americans in over 10,000 delivery sites across the nation. One in every 13 people in the United States gets their care in a community health center. Health Centers deliver high quality, cost effective, accessible care to all people, regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status.
The theme for National Health Center Week 2017 is Celebrating America’s Health Centers: The Key to Healthier Communities. CHC of Cape Cod is hosting the following events free and Open to the public:
For information about any Health Center Week activities at Community Health Center of Cape Cod, contact Alex Speck in the Development Office at 508-477-5990, or email Alex Speck.
As a Patient Centered Medical Home, CHC of Cape Cod holds itself to the highest standards. Ensuring patients have access to care when they need it and request it, and validating that staff are working at the top of their licensures, are foundations of this model. CHC is proud to announce the recent launch of a Patient Engagement Center (PEC) designed to help strengthen those foundations.
The initial focus of the PEC is on managing inbound calls and scheduling appointments with Mashpee primary care providers. Two full-time Patient Access staff members are tasked with answering every live call that reaches the Mashpee operator. Patient Engagement protocols will guide staff when an appointment should be scheduled with the primary care provider, and this should reduce the opportunities callers have to circumvent the operator. Rather than forwarding calls onto the medical teams, Patient Access staff will create telephone encounters in their electronic health records system which will be routed to the team clinical administrators or nursing staff.
Ultimately, the aim of the Patient Engagement Center is to allow CHC of Cape Cod to sustain all facets of Patient Engagement: supporting clinical teams with patient care, working with the Complex Care team as they reach out to patients newly discharged from the hospital, and registering and orienting new patients. Creating a robust program for patient engagement is critical to helping the Health Center maintain its strategic goals: high quality patient centered care, operational excellence, a sustainable business model, and a destination for outstanding people.
Legislators and Community health centers met in a press conference on Tuesday to discuss the importance of Prevention and Wellness Funding in terms of patient preventative and complex care. We are committed to reauthorizing funding in the State budget for the PWTF. To see a full Cape Cod Times article, click here.
Mashpee – Community Health Center of Cape Cod received Gold recognition in the Wicked Local 2017 Readers Choice Awards for “Regional Favorite” in the Doctor/Primary Care Physician or Pediatrician category. CHC of Cape Cod also received Silver recognition for “Regional Favorite” in the Dentist or Dental Office category. These regional awards include votes for organizations from the following towns: Barnstable/Hyannis, Bourne, Dennis, Falmouth, Mashpee, Sandwich and Yarmouth.
In addition to these regional awards, CHC of Cape Cod was a Readers Choice Award winner in Mashpee, placing first in the following three categories: first choice for Doctor/Primary Care Physician or Pediatrician, first choice for Dentist or Dental Office and first choice for Optical Shop. The Health Center is thankful to the community for voting it as a top location to receive care on the mid and upper Cape. For 20 years, the Wicked Local Readers Choice Awards have provided communities an opportunity to recognize their favorite local businesses. Wicked Local Favorites is part of the Wicked Local network of websites.
Community Health Center of Cape Cod has hired two practitioners to meet their increasing demands for behavioral health and primary care services: Sharon Cicchetti, MSN, FNP-BC and Barbara Hayes, LICSW, MSW.
Ms. Cicchetti has extensive experience in Family Practice having spent several years in a busy practice in Sacramento, California, and more recently at the Lahey Clinic in Peabody, Massachusetts. She joined the Family Medicine team in Mashpee and will also serve as a provider for Walk-in care. Ms. Cicchetti has an undergraduate degree from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, graduating with honors, and a graduate degree in nursing from Boston College, where she won the Patricia Ibert Scholars Award in 2001.
Ms. Hayes provides behavioral health services in Community Health Center of Cape Cod’s Bourne office. Prior to joining the team at CHC, she worked as a psychotherapist in private practice at Garda Counseling in Yarmouth Port and as a mental health clinician at the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office. Barbara also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law Enforcement and worked for the Weston Police Department for over 20 years as a Family Services Officer. Barbara enjoys volunteering for Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and is actively involved in the PMC, Jimmy Fund Walk, and various other events.
For more information about CHC of Cape Cod’s services, visit: www.chcofcapecod.org/services
Community Health Center of Cape Cod hosted its Summer Solstice Celebration on June 22, 2017. This kickoff event to their year-long 20th Anniversary celebration was a great success that raised both awareness and funds to directly benefit their mission to improve the health of the community through the provision of comprehensive, high-quality, compassionate healthcare to all, regardless of ability to pay.
Heath Center board members, staff, sponsors and supporters enjoyed local favorites from Washashore Bakery, Cape and Islands Distillery, Naukabout Beer and Cape Cod Coffee and were treated to music from Brian Maxwell Kerins of Flydown. Karen Gardner, Community Health Center of Cape Cod’s Chief Executive Officer, welcomed the crowd, and Board President Dave Peterson spoke about the importance of community health centers and affordable care.
In 1997, the Health Center was founded as the volunteer-run Falmouth Free Clinic, completing 600 visits in the basement of Falmouth Hospital in their first year. Community Health Center of Cape Cod is now a patient centered medical home serving more than 15,000 patients with offices in Falmouth, Mashpee and Bourne. This evening celebrated the growth, expansion and progress that the Health Center has made over the last 20 years, as the healthcare home of choice for so many in the community.
Community Health Center of Cape Cod will host its Summer Solstice Celebration, Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 6:00 pm. The event marks the kickoff to the Health Center’s yearlong Celebration of 20 Years since it was founded as the Falmouth Free Clinic.
The Summer Solstice Celebration is a fundraiser for the Health Center, featuring lite fare from Eat Your Heart Out Catering, music from Flydown band, and tastes from local favorites, including Washashore Bakery, Cape and Islands Distillery, and Cape Cod Coffee. Proceeds from the evening will support Community Health Center of Cape Cod’s mission: to improve the health of our community through the provision of comprehensive, high-quality, compassionate health care to all, regardless of ability to pay.
Please consider joining us to cover this local fundraiser, which promises to be a great evening. More information about the Summer Solstice is below.
Event Date: Thursday, June 22, 2017
Time: Event begins at 6:00 pm
Welcome & remarks from Karen Gardner, CEO at approximately 7:30 pm
Location: Community Health Center of Cape Cod, 107 Commercial Street, Mashpee
Media Contact: Alex Speck
Media Contact Phone: (917) 509-6813 (day of event)
Media Contact Email: [email protected]
Mashpee – Community Health Center of Cape Cod is delighted to announce its receipt of $10,000 from the Cape and Islands United Way to support Substance Abuse Program Expansion. The expansion is aimed at helping youth and adults refrain from substance abuse and other risky and unhealthy behaviors. The CHC Bourne office houses the Office Based Opioid Treatment (OBOT) program, an individualized, highly structured addiction recovery program that combines counseling, monitoring and medical care to help combat the opiate epidemic. The OBOT program provides comprehensive treatment for opiate addiction, including Medication-Assisted Treatment, case management and behavioral health services. In 2015, the Health Center completed 2,256 substance abuse visits. This expansion project will provide increased access to behavioral health services for Health Center patients, including the OBOT program.
Community Health Center of Cape Cod has appointed Yvonne Nickerson, LICSW, as their Addiction Program Manager. Ms. Nickerson joined the behavioral health team at CHC of Cape Cod as a counselor in August 2014. Since then, she has been conducting psychological assessments of all incoming behavioral health patients in the Bourne office. She has also served as an addictions therapist and a facilitator of the Health Center’s Office Based Opioid Treatment Program. Ms. Nickerson previously worked at Gosnold in Falmouth as a Treatment Coordinator, demonstrating her expertise and passion for substance abuse treatment. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education and Care from University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Masters of Social Work from Boston University. She is a resident of Mashpee.
The Health Center believes everyone deserves accessible, affordable, high-quality care and is committed to expanding medical and behavioral health services for substance use disorder prevention and treatment. The Health Center will be expanding access to an office based outpatient, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) program and will be expanding program design to provide partial day treatment, including intensive, integrated wellness, medical and mental health counseling. This Structured Outpatient Addictions Program (SOAP) will strengthen integration with behavioral health services to expand its scope beyond substance abuse to overall pain and addictions management. The program will provide barrier assessments, community education and referrals to provide patients with the necessary tools to live a healthy drug and alcohol-free life.
For more information about the Substance Abuse Treatment Program at the Health Center, visit www.chcofcapecod.org.
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f: 508-477-7028
123 Waterhouse Rd.
Bourne, MA 02532
1185B Falmouth Rd.
Centerville, MA 02632
210 Jones Rd.
Falmouth, MA 02540
26 Edgerton Dr.
N. Falmouth, MA 02556
