Family First Health

For kids in the York County area, keeping their eye on the prize of an education is key. But sometimes that can be difficult when your vision is blurry.

Family First Health and Envolve Benefit Options have teamed up with the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved to bring the Vision Van to York City and Delta this week.

“There are a lot of kids unable to afford glasses,” said Courtney Lewis, director of development and community engagement at Family First. “We have to be thinking how it affects kids’ performances when they can’t see correctly in class.”

The Vision Van is rolling into York Friday at Hannah Penn Middle School, 415 E. Boundary Ave. Children up to age 18 in York City can get their vision checked for free from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. with parental permission.

Read more from the York Dispatch.

Since our youth, we’ve been indoctrinated to eat our vegetables with dinner. Parents shared persuasive arguments about carrots aiding our eyesight and spinach making us strong, but many kids still hid Brussels sprouts in their napkins to dump elsewhere later.

It seems we haven’t changed much as adults: The Healthy York County Coalition and Healthy Adams County released a summary report of the community health needs for 2015 that found only 4 percent of York and Adams county residents consume the daily recommendation of fruits and vegetables.

That’s why Family First Health is focused in April on our “Eat Your Greens!” campaign, which encourages individuals to make fruits and vegetables part of the conversation with their doctors and dentists.

Read more from our CEO, Jenny Englerth, in this guest column published in the York Sunday News.

Family First Health Corp. has received more than $350,000 in funding for substance abuse services through the Health Resources and Services Administration.

Family First is one of five health centers in Pennsylvania to receive the funding. CEO Jenny Englerth said the money will be used to help provide routine screening to 14,000 patients served in York City and Hanover, as well as medication-assisted treatment for addiction for 400 to 500 people in the area.

Read more from the York Dispatch.

Friday brought two developments regarding the opioid and heroin epidemic in the U.S., both of which will impact Central Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released additional funding for substance-abuse services, and the Senate passed an act to enhance programs seen as critical to tackling the nation’s prescription opioid and heroin crisis.

In the midstate, two organizations have received funding to expand substance-abuse services, specifically those related to opioid use. Family First Health in York received $352,083 and Keystone Rural Health Center in Chambersburg received $352,083.

Read more from the Central Penn Business Journal.

Think of the individuals you interact with on a daily or weekly basis: Your parents, your children, your extended family. Co-workers, neighbors, fellow volunteers, friends.

Within your social circle, you can likely imagine one person who notoriously never gets sick or never goes to the doctor. Someone without health insurance. Someone who self-diagnoses with online resources. Someone without a primary care provider or medical home.

We all know we could be wiser consumers when it comes to health care.

Read more from our CEO, Jenny Englerth, in this guest column published in the York Sunday News.

Remembering more than 94,000 people who have died because of AIDS is part of educating the public on the effects of the disease.

Family First Health, WellSpan Health and York College are working together to bring the AIDS Memorial Quilt to York City this summer.

Read more from the York Dispatch.

While the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s is over, HIV is still ever present in our population – though the use of medication helps make it a manageable chronic disease.
This summer, Family First Health, WellSpan Health and York College will bring 12 panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt to central Pennsylvania as a reminder of the disease that’s still ever-present and a memorial to the more than 94,000 individuals lost to AIDS. The quilt will be displayed at Marketview Arts, 37 W. Philadelphia St., York, from June 23-25. It will be free to the public.
As plans are underway for events surrounding the three-day event – including National HIV Testing Day – Family First Health is seeking your input as we request which panels come to York. Have you seen the quilt before and been touched by a particular panel? Did you or someone you know work on a panel? Is there one in memory of a central Pennsylvania resident we’ve lost to HIV?
If you are aware of a panel with local ties – York, Hanover, Gettysburg, Lancaster, Harrisburg and more – please contact Kate Harmon, marketing and outreach coordinator with Family First Health. Contact her by phone, 717-801-4855 or email kharmon@familyfirsthealh.org. All requests should be made by May 1.
What is the AIDS Memorial Quilt?
Established in 1987, The NAMES Project Foundation is the international organization that is the custodian of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The AIDS Memorial Quilt began with a single 3 x 6 foot panel created in San Francisco in 1987. Today, The Quilt is composed of more than 48,000 individual 3 x 6 foot panels, each one commemorating the life of someone who has died of AIDS. These panels come from every state in the nation, every corner of the globe and they have been sewn by hundreds of thousands of friends, lovers and family members into this epic memorial, the largest piece of ongoing community art in the world.
For more
For more information on the upcoming display in York, please call 717-801-4855. For more information on The NAMES Project and The AIDS Memorial Quilt, please visit aidsquilt.org or call the national headquarters at (404) 688-5500.

Hygienists filled Vida Charter School in February to teach kids about the importance of keeping their teeth sparkly white.

The dental experts are part of Family First Health’s Kids Against Cavities program. They performed preventative screenings on more than 120 students at Vida Charter School in Gettysburg on Thursday.

Read more (and check out photos!) from the Hanover Evening Sun.