News

Five of us stood there in the wind at the York City Business and Industrial Park one recent afternoon waiting. Ten minutes, 15, 30 minutes passed as some tried to make small talk. Others just stood or sat quietly on their phones or looking off into the distance.

Just waiting and planning.

And by the time the bus connection arrived a good 40 minutes later, I was just headed home after work, but the other four – they were late for work. They were going to get docked for it, too.

There were no email alerts, no updates coming in on the phones that our bus was running late. The cause: traffic in Manchester Township.

I’ve thought that I’ve had a pretty good idea about what’s going on in York from years as a reporter and editor, now as a marketing and outreach coordinator for Family First Health, and as a person who’s just often found downtown. But in the two months I’ve been riding the bus, I’ve come to see there’s a huge section of this town that we don’t notice – maybe because we’re looking ahead as we drive by and not at those just stuck waiting at each bus stop along the way.

Read more from the York Daily Record/Sunday News.

Family First Health in Hanover has been selected as part of an initiative to provide more comprehensive care to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients.

The program, commissioned by the National Association of Community Health Centers and the Centers for Disease Control, aims to give LGBT people improved care by asking questions about sexual orientation and gender identity.

“This information just helps take better care of you,” said Karen McCraw, the director of social services for Family First Health.

Read more from The Evening Sun.

How would you describe yourself if you had to choose from the following: Male, female, female-to-male, male-to-female, genderqueer or an additional gender category?

If you decline to answer, provide a reason why.

These questions are among a series that a nurse practitioner within York-based Family First Health is asking every patient over the age of 13 that comes into her Hanover practice.

Read more from the Central Penn Business Journal. 

Gov. Tom Wolf signed two executive orders Thursday to expand non-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity for commonwealth employees under his jurisdiction.

That will have an immediate effect on the 79,000 employees under his purview and will affect “tens of thousands” of workers contracted with the state as those contracts come online, he said.

A week before the governor signed the orders, Family First Health announced its participation in a collaborative to transform primary care for LGBT patients.

Read more about it from the Daily Record/Sunday News.

Vision problems left untreated can affect a child’s overall health and learning, and Family First Health is working to make sure kids get the treatment they need — for free.

Jenny Englerth, CEO of Family First Health, said the organization is a member of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved, which put out a call asking what communities could use the service, and so Family First Health jumped on it.

“We have consistently, within our interactions with York City schools, heard a challenge around both vision screenings and then exams and getting corrective lenses,” she said.

Read more at the York Daily Record/Sunday News.

Family First Health knows how important getting personal care is to one’s health. Different groups of people have different health issues, and making sure everyone gets the same level of care is a top priority to Family First, according to the health care provider.

Sexual identity and orientation is a very personal issue, said Karen McCraw, director of social services for Family First. It is something that could affect the quality of health care if someone decides not to disclose information.

“We don’t know how we’re doing unless we’re measuring this,” she said.

Read more from the York Dispatch.

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.