News

About 5,800 new Pennsylvanians will get the news this month that they have a chronic illness that’s treatable but not curable.

“Ideally preventative care is going to help identify those risk factors for chronic illness early on before that’s even able to materialize,” Family First Health CEO Jenny Englerth shared in a recent article from the York Dispatch. “Focusing on children and adults through healthy eating, exercise, immunizations — all those things position people to prevent progression of that illness.”

Read more from the York Dispatch.

How important is family support for an individual who identifies as LGBTQ? It may seem like an usual focus for a primary care practice — but as providers, we understand that a friend, parent or other family member can play a crucial role in how accepted an individual feels when he or she comes out.

Our program manager for Caring Together, Shannon McElroy, spoke with AARP on how parents and grandparents of LGBTQ individuals can educate themselves and provide support for their child or grandchild.

Read more from AARP.

The reason people who die from overdose after being clean for a period of time is rooted in biochemistry, said Dr. Debra Bell, director of clinical quality improvement for Family First Health.

A person becomes dependent on heroin, or other drugs or other things that aren’t drugs, because of how that stimulus works on the brain, Bell said. Other things, like exercise, work in a similar way.

“There are parts of the brain that will be triggered in different ways to create a dependency for anything,” Bell said.

Read more from the York Daily Record/Sunday 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.