Community Impact | 2019–2020
Celebrating success and looking ahead
Every three years, Great Plains Health, together with many community partners, evaluates the community’s greatest healthcare needs. For 2016–2019, GPHealth identified the following six priorities and reported these associated actions. 1 Increased access to mental and behavioral healthcare and education plan,” says Fiona Libsack, GPHealth chief development officer. “Her presence in the clinic has made a difference for many children and their families. facility and outpatient clinic. Community discussions have also begun about bringing
detox services into the community. 2 Increased prevention and education to address chronic diseases, preventable conditions, readmissions and high mortality rates The physician-led Great Plains Health Innovation Network and the GPHealth Innovation Committee placed monitoring devices in select local nursing homes to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations.
GPHealth established a suicide-prevention task force, enhanced suicide-prevention education and continued to offer a 19-bed inpatient behavioral health unit, the only inpatient program in a 100-mile radius. Licensed mental health care practitioner Fran Rieken joined Great Plains Pediatrics in October 2018 as part of a partnership with the University of Nebraska Medical Center Munroe-Meyer Institute. “Already, Fran has been able to intervene with teens who were experiencing suicidal ideations with an intent to carry out a
In August 2019, Geentanjali Sahu, MD, became the first child and adolescent psychiatrist recruited to Lincoln County. “Our community is very blessed to have someone of Dr. Sahu’s experience and expertise,” says Libsack. “Prior to her arrival, many of our adolescents were leaving the community for mental healthcare or went unserved.” Looking forward, GPHealth is exploring the recruitment of additional psychiatrists and will continue to provide an inpatient
The GPfit! initiative, now in its seventh year, hosted fitness, education and risk-
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