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(ELK POINT, SD) – Horizon Health Foundation recently received a $1,500 donation from Union County Electric Cooperative and CoBank for the purchase of a leather powerlift reclining patient chair for Elk Point Community Health Center’s behavioral health room.
The Elk Point clinic offers a safe, comfortable environment for patients with behavioral health issues, while offering different services such as counseling or medication management. Providing a safe environment can alleviate some of the patient anxiety around behavioral health appointments.
“Behavioral health issues can be quite sensitive, and people frequently delay seeking help. Once they make that decision, being able to come to a place where they are comfortable and feel able to share their issues is vital,” said Traci Holmquist, EdD, MS, APRN, CNP, PMHNP-BC, and provider at Elk Point Community Health Center. “Having a room that is less of a sterile, medical exam room and one that is more comfortable and homelike helps patients be more open.”
With the gift from Union County Electric Cooperative and CoBank, Horizon Health Care can continue to provide patients with high-quality behavioral health care in a comfortable environment.
Union County Electric Cooperative is a Touchstone Energy Cooperative headquartered in Elk Point, South Dakota, that provides electric power to 1,189 members. Their donation to the Horizon Health Foundation was funded through Operation Round-Up, a voluntary program in which Union County Electric members round up their electric bill to the next whole dollar each month and the extra cents flow into a charitable fund to benefit people and organizations making an impact within their service area.
“With the Elk Point Community Health Center and Horizon Health Foundation, we saw an organization that aligned with our mission,” said Matt Klein, general manager at Union County Electric Cooperative. “Today there are so many individuals that have behavioral health needs. We saw this as an opportunity to help Horizon Health Care meet a need in the behavioral health clinic that provides those essential services in our community. We were excited to partner with CoBank to award Horizon Health Foundation a grant totaling $1,500.”
CoBank is one of the largest private providers of credit to the U.S. rural economy by delivering loans, leases and other financial services to agribusiness, rural infrastructure and Farm Credit customers in all 50 states.
The Horizon Health Foundation was established in 2016 to ensure rural health care access to those in need and provide funding for Horizon Health Care. Horizon Health Foundation, a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation, seeks through responsible activities to encourage and derive sustaining gift support from current and former patients and interested friends, including corporate entities. The Horizon Health Foundation, operating in coordination with Horizon Health Care, is the duly designated fundraising arm for Horizon Health Care. In the broadest sense, the purpose of the Foundation is to create an awareness of the financial needs of Horizon Health Care, which are not provided by patient charges and to systematically implement plans by which dollar needs can be met.
About Horizon Health Care
For over 40 years, Horizon Health Care has been providing personalized, affordable, high-quality medical, dental and behavioral health care through a rural, community-based network in South Dakota. Horizon is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that serves the medical, dental and mental health care needs of South Dakotans in rural, medically underserved areas through 110,000 patient visits annually in 32 community health centers in: Aberdeen, Alcester, Bison, Bryant, De Smet, Eagle Butte, Elk Point, Faith, Fort Thompson, Howard, Huron, Isabel, La Plant, Lake Preston, Martin, McIntosh, Mission, Plankinton, Wessington Springs, White River, Woonsocket, and Yankton. For more information, please visit www.horizonhealthcare.org.