$11.7 Million Federal Grant to Fund Health Clinic

LEXINGTON, Ky. — An $11.7 million federal grant was awarded to build a 60,000-square-foot physical and mental health treatment facility for the poor and homeless in Lexington.

 

The grant comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and has been in the works for more than a year. Three acres of land, valued at $2.4 million, are being donated for the future three-story building.

 

Plans are in the works for a primary care health clinic on the first floor and mental health and substance abuse services on the upper floors. Many of the patients served by both groups are typically poor, homeless or uninsured, but the new facility’s health clinic is planned to rival the physical space frequented by those with private insurance, becoming something more than just a last resort for the uninsured, according to a report.

 

The board’s residential substance abuse treatment program and crisis intervention programs are currently located on the Eastern State Hospital site at the Newtown Pike and Fourth Street and are both are scheduled to be torn down to make way for a new Bluegrass Community and Technical College Complex. In the end, the new Eastern State Hospital, already in construction, the primary care clinic and the mental health board programs will all be within easy access from one another at a primary campus.

 

The new building will have room for three additional practitioners who can treat up to 24 patients daily.