YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Family First Health is opening a new pharmacy in York County located on South George Street with hopes of allowing more residents access to affordable medications. The organization says that Pennsylvania is a pharmacy desert.
“The void of pharmacy services locally and impede someone’s health overall,” said Family First Health CEO Jenny Englerth
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YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)– Chain pharmacies are continuing to close throughout the Midstate, but there is some good news from York County.
Rite Aid and CVS locations have been closing all across the Midstate in recent months, leaving local Pennsylvanians without reliable access to medication.
The closures of pharmacies have been a trend throughout the country. Individuals who live locally or in rural areas are feeling the effects of this more, as their access to necessary medication is being cut off.
While things may look bad in many parts of the Midstate, one York County business plans to open its own pharmacy inside its doors.
Non-profit Family First Health in York City is going to be opening its own pharmacy in its building. While it’s only one location, Family First Health aims to compensate for the recent closures in the area.
Other independent pharmacies across the midstate are following suit, putting up signs that say “accepting Rite Aid customers.”
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The organization is set to launch an in-house pharmacy to reduce medical barriers for residents. YORK, Pa. –Recently, two pharmacies in York have closed, and Family First Health says the city is now a pharmacy desert. To help, the organization is set to launch an in-house pharmacy this fall at its George Street Center at 116 S. George St.
According to the city’s community health assessment, more than 22% of the city’s residents face poverty, and close to one in five households don’t have access to a vehicle, which could make it a challenge to access medication.
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Family First Health is proud to partner with Martin Library to support teen mental health through a new initiative aimed at creating safe, supportive spaces for youth in our community. This collaboration is part of our ongoing commitment to whole-person care, ensuring teens have access to the resources and support they need.
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Family First Health is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) that is accessible and community-minded. They take a beyond healthy approach that goes outside the confines of the doctor’s office. Their goal is to have happy, healthy patients who can live better lives in better health. Accessible healthcare is critical to a healthy community.
Their new School-Based Health Center at William Penn Senior High Center provides routine health exams (school, work, driver’s license, etc.), diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, nutrition counseling, and behavioral health services. These services are provided during school hours and are available to all current William Penn Senior High School students, regardless of insurance status, ability to pay or current medical provider.
By having a health center directly in the school, students and their families are able to have access to care, with minimal disruption to the student’s education, or the family’s routine. YCCF’s Racial Equity Fund and supporting organization, the Memorial Health Fund are proud to support this innovative approach to health for our community.
View the story here. Family First Health Putting Student Care
Family First Health is making strides in enhancing dental care access for Pennsylvania communities. The organization is committed to integrating innovative strategies that foster not only improved patient care but also increased accessibility to essential dental services. As highlighted in recent updates, Family First Health’s efforts exemplify how integrating technological advancements and a holistic approach can help bridge the gap in healthcare, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to maintain their oral health. Their continued dedication to providing compassionate, quality care is shaping the future of community.
By Jenny Englerth
Millions of children nationwide are missing a significant number of school days for health-related reasons. While illness cannot always be prevented, more can be done to provide healthcare access to families to make it easier for kids to return to the classroom in less time.
A March 2024 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics found 5.8 percent of school-aged children in the U.S. experienced chronic absenteeism in 2022 for health reasons. That correlates to about 2.9 million students ages 5 to 17 who missed more than 15 days of school. Those missed days can lead to poorer academic performance and school engagement and increased risk for dropping out of school.
The problem is even worse for families struggling to make ends meet. A total of 7.9 percent of children in the study’s lowest income bracket were chronically absent due to injury, illness or disability.
Providing affordable, accessible health care to students can help more children get to school and stay in their classrooms. At Family First Health, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) serving patients at eight locations in Central Pennsylvania, we’ve seen the impact first-hand.
FFH’s Hannah Penn Center is the only school-based health center in York County. The health center provides pediatric care, routine health exams, preventive care, referrals and integrated behavioral health services to 40 percent of the students at the school. In addition to health services, FFH leads health and wellness lessons, supports school events and programs, distributes hundreds of hygiene products and books and forms connections with students in need of emotional support.
That kind of success can be emulated elsewhere. We want to be a part of bringing health care access to even more of the bright young minds in our community. That’s why we are looking towards the future of school-based healthcare and expanding our reach to William Penn Senior High School at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year.
The journey to being a healthy adult is challenging for all young people, but some face a steeper climb. At William Penn Senior High School, 55 percent of the district’s students experience acute poverty and the district reported a 28 percent transiency rate in 2018. These families often face significant barriers when it comes to getting their children medical care, such as missing work, finding transportation, lack of insurance and affording treatment.
FFH’s new school-based health center at William Penn Senior High School will provide primary medical and behavioral healthcare to students in school regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. Students will get the support and care they need so health is not one of their barriers to engaging in education.
Patient visits to the center will reduce the amount of time students are outside of the classroom and provide much-needed support for the school nursing staff. Students will not need to leave school for a half or full day to see a doctor. Challenges related to transportation will be eliminated as students will be able to walk down the hall to get the care they need.
Meanwhile, the center will support overall student well-being, which has been shown to increase attendance, improve graduation rates and decrease dropout rates setting students up for success as they prepare to join the workforce.
Our community will be stronger in the future, if together, we support today’s students by investing in their health and education. With this new school-based health center, we can develop an environment where more children have the opportunity to thrive academically and personally. Let’s come together as a community to ensure that students are plugged into the resources and opportunities they need to achieve their best health, today and in the future.
Jenny Englerth is the President and CEO of Family First Health
We are proud to announce that we’ve partnered with York Tech to provide additional resources for their students. Sandra Frecon, one of our community health workers, will be available once a week in the high school office to provide the following health-related services:
Medical/dental enrollment and coordination of appointments
Insurance eligibility assessments
Food insecurity assistance
Housing insecurity assistance
Scholarship program for medical assistants (MA)
Family First Health employment opportunities
Students who wish to take advantage of these services should visit Ms. Frecon in the high school office on Mondays between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Alternatively, parents and caregivers of current students may contact her at sfrecon@ytech.edu.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 1 in 5 children between the ages of 5 and 11 have at least one untreated decaying tooth and children between the ages of 5 and 19 are twice as likely to have cavities if they come from low-income households.
According to the University of Illinois College of Dentistry, there is a connection between oral health and a person’s overall health and well-being.
February is Children’s Dental Health Month and Dr. LaJuan Mountain, vice president of dental services at Family First Health, and Dr. Sam Mansour, Pennsylvania Dental Association’s statewide national children’s dental health month chair, joined us on The Spark Thursday to discuss the importance of children’s dental health, the barriers to receiving dental care and ways to overcome them.
Dr. Mountain said, a healthy mouth consists of firm and pink gums and no disruptions or discoloration in the enamel. She also said, oral health is not the general consensus that she is seeing in our communities because of a lack of accessibility, high costs, insurance challenges, dentist office schedules, a lack of oral health literacy and more.
On The Spark we also discussed the Family First Health’s Mobile School Dentist program that provides in-school dental care for all ages and grade levels in York, Adams and Lancaster County.
“It’s having a tremendous impact. I’ve been doing this program for almost a decade and I’m actually seeing kids that I first started to treat in Head Start, and they’re now in junior high. So that means we’ve actually followed kids throughout their entire academic life thus far, and we’re seeing improvement,” Dr. Mountain said. “We’re exposing them to the importance of their oral health, but also opportunities in health care, especially because the individuals we’re interacting with are often in that low socioeconomic environment.”
