By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – The North Olympic Health Care Network (NOHN) in Clallam County has just announced they were awarded a $3.3 million grant to expand their behavioral health resources on the Olympic Peninsula.

The funds, awarded by The United Health Foundation, will be used first to expand the Family School Navigator program in the Port Angeles School District. It was started a few years ago to identify kids in need of services and get them connected to the right caregivers.

“It worked really well in that early, small scale, and we saw this grant as an opportunity to help support that. And we’ll be funding expansion of that position over the next three years. So there’ll be more staff to do that for the school district.”

That’s NOHN CEO, Dr. Mike Maxwell. He says the plan is to provide behavioral health and primary care services to 1,000 students in grades K-12, 10-times what they’re doing now, using a mobile medical unit. It would be staffed by NOHN counselors and medical personnel, and basically make the rounds to all the schools in the district and elsewhere around the community.

“It’s actually a 39-foot Winnebago that’s being fabricated right now. So it will be new. It will have spaces on board, actually three different exam rooms, it will have a medical room, a couple counseling rooms, a waiting area, and even capacity to offer some dental screenings as well.”

The grant is also going to make a big a difference in the community by expanding the Port Angeles Community Paramedicine program, which goes directly to people who may be in crisis, often treating them on the spot, saving countless visits to emergency rooms and often times avoiding incarcerations. Maxwell says the grant will fund 2 more Fire Department physicians for that program.