The Connect Health + Wellness mobile healthcare unit, a walk-in clinic on wheels, visited Stuart on Wednesday, February 7, offering residents another option for their healthcare needs.
Lindsay Anthony, director of marketing, said the mobile unit visited the county because “it is an underserved area, so we’re just looking to add additional access to healthcare services.”
Anthony said this was the first time the walk-in clinic was set up at Walmart. Fewer than 12 people were seen.
The mobile unit will return to the same location weekly, on Feb. 15, Feb. 21, and Feb. 29. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and patients aged 12 years old and up are accepted.
A photo identification and a list of medications are required. Those with insurance cards should bring them; those without should bring proof of income (a month of pay stubs, W-2s, or Social Security Income letter).
Anthony said the people she’s talked to seem excited about Connect Health coming to the area.
“We’re working with a bunch of groups, community partners, they’re helping us promote and they recognized that there’s a need in Patrick County,” she said. “We’re just looking to help people that would like to be seen. We see everybody, insurance, no insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, self-pay.”
Anthony encourages anyone needing a medical provider or to be seen to come to the mobile healthcare unit.
The Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition West Piedmont was also set up at the event.
Ariel Johnson, the director, said the group works with those who are actively using substances, or their friends and family, “to help educate them, how to reduce the harms of substance use such as overdose, death, and disease transmission.”
Johnson said Connect Health provides medical care and primary care to individuals in marginalized communities, just like the coalition does.
“So, as soon as I came up here, I connected with them and they were like ‘yep, please come on.” Today, we’re doing Narcan which is an opioid antagonist, it helps survive overdoses,” she said.
Johnson said there are also resource connections and referral sheets available.
“Everything’s completely free, we are a non-profit,” she said.
Johnson said the Coalition plans to set up at the future Connect Health mobile clinic days.
