In the fall of 2024, the Grays Harbor Community Foundation awarded a $50,000 grant to Grays Harbor County Public Health to acquire a mobile medical unit to provide primary care/screening services to improve community health.
During needs assessments, they identified that many students experience barriers to receiving care including lack of providers in the county, transportation and lack of insurance. The goal of the van is to provide services to all students in Grays Harbor County through mobile efforts. The van travels throughout the county to provide resources to our community including sports physicals and well checks.
They recently sent the Foundation an update and shared a story of how the van has positively affected our community:
“One impact story that I would like to report on is the ability to provide SMART autism assessments through our school based health center operations. SMART (School Medical Autism Review Team) is a model in Washington state that aims to streamline autism assessments by bringing together pediatricians, schools, early intervention agencies, and families to share information and facilitate a virtual, comprehensive evaluation.
“This approach helps to shorten wait times for diagnosis, particularly in rural and underserved areas, and connects families with necessary services. Oftentimes, students are not able to access services for autism until they have had an assessment. We currently only have two providers in Grays Harbor that can provide these assessments with our provider for our mobile and school services being one of them.
“There is a six-month wait list in Grays Harbor and over a two year wait list statewide to get one of these assessments. Through our efforts in providing health care services in schools, Dr. Laura Galati was able to identify the potential need for an assessment, conduct the assessment, and get the family access to services that they were not qualified for previously. This is a family that has struggled with identifying potential causes for medical challenges with their child. The family now has a pathway to follow with the needed resources for health outcomes and services that can support both students and families on a whole. This was a big win for this family and would have been difficult to achieve in our county without this operation.”
The Foundation’s next grant cycle is their Impact and After School Grants, both due June 1 at 5 p.m. Contact Jessica Hoover with questions at jessica@gh-cf.org or visit our website at www.gh-cf.org.
