News

York-based Family First Health has opened its first Lancaster County practice.

The primary and mental health care provider, which serves many low-income people and families, now has a location in Columbia at 369 Locust St. The office started seeing patients last week.

Family First Health – Columbia Center marks the organization’s sixth location. Family First’s other locations are spread between York and Adams counties.

Family First has been seeing more than 500 patients from Columbia and surrounding boroughs for many years, but the patients were traveling to York for services, according to CEO Jenny Englerth.

Read more from the Central Penn Business Journal.

The York Daily Record investigation team took a look at the 127 heroin-related overdoses and published a handful of stories that look at the epidemic plaguing York County and the nation. They also told some stories of those who lost their loved ones to the drug.

Stacey Burroughs, our behavioral health coordinator, and Erin Cosgrove-Findley, program manager of The SAFER Initiative, weighed in on the issue in the articles.

Take a look:

Who is dying from heroin?

Heroin addiction was daily battle for York woman

Treating patients with dignity is a top priority for Dr. Marie Kellett. She says this as she opens up a Family First Health office in Columbia, pointing to a service trip to rural Virginia and a severe car accident as reasons for her passion for helping rural, underserved communities.

In her fourth year of medical school, Kellett lost her left leg above the knee after she was hit by a drunk driver. She endured 12 surgeries, spent a month in a hospital’s intensive care unit and took two months away from school to recover.

During that time, Kellett had many visits with doctors. The ones who sat down with her and had a more personal bedside manner seemed like they were more supportive, Kellett recalled. It is why she believes so much now in sitting with patients and putting their needs first.

“I would have never asked to have been hit by a car, (but the result is) I am a better doctor, wife and mother,” Kellett said.

Kellett is running the first Family First Health office outside of York and Adams counties, where the the non-profit company operates. The office at 369 Locust St. formally opened Tuesday with a full schedule of patients and no issues, office staff told PennLive.

Read more from Pennlive.

Damian Miller was one of 127 people who died from a heroin-related overdose in York County in 2014 and 2015. The York Daily Record compiled and analyzed information about each of those 127 people in an attempt to better understand who is dying from heroin-related overdoses and look for possible solutions to what many call an epidemic in York County.

His grandmother talks about losing Damian and how she didn’t want to believe that he was using heroin.

Family First Health’s Erin  Cosgrove-Findley weighs in about options and resources for those in need and our SAFER Initiative.

Read more from the York Daily Record/Sunday News.

Family First Health, which operates medical offices in York and Adams counties, has opened in downtown Columbia, Lancaster County, the York-based nonprofit’s first new location since 2009.

Opening an office on the other side of the Susquehanna River won’t benefit only people living in Lancaster County. It will also serve residents of eastern York County communities, including Wrightsville and Hellam Township.

Family First has seen a growing number of its patients come from those areas, as well as from Columbia and Mount Joy in Lancaster County, said Jenny Englerth, Family First’s CEO. Before, they would travel to Family First’s downtown York location.

Read more from the York Daily Record/Sunday News.

The recession hammered York County and its identity as a manufacturing economy. The race is on to identify the jobs of York’s future.

Our CEO Jenny Englerth spoke to reporter Gary Haber about how this weighs in to patients struggling to support and maintain their health care and insurance.

Many patients are dealing with a budget “more and more stretched,” Englerth said. For some, that means choosing between seeing the dentist or getting a prescription filled.

Read more from the York Daily Record.

Making sure pregnant women in Pennsylvania are protected against Zika is a top priority for Pennsylvania officials.

State Department of Health and Department of Environmental Protection officials came together Thursday to assemble 2,500 Zika prevention kits that will be distributed around the commonwealth.

“Zika has been connected to birth defects,” said Dr. Karen Murphy, Department of Health secretary. “There are currently 40 confirmed cases in Pennsylvania, all of which have been acquired outside the state in areas where the disease is rapidly spreading.”

Family First Health is one of the locations where people can find the prevention kit.

Read more at the York Dispatch.