Grace Health Services receives grant from UF Medical Guild

Press release from Grace Healthcare Services

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The UF Medical Guild (UFMG) has granted $8,100 to Grace Healthcare Services Corp (GHSC) for support of its AAMRC Free Mental Health Clinic at GRACE, to be awarded in October 2023.   

The U.S. Dept of Housing & Urban Development, in a 2015 assessment survey regarding the homeless in the U.S. on any given night, stated, “25% have serious mental illness, up to 45% have had mental illness.” We all recognize that homelessness and its concomitant social impact on communities has only increased since the survey was done.

In 2022, 500 uninsured patients were served through GHSC with the AAMRC (Alachua Area Medical Reserve Corps/FL DOH) at Grace Clinic. We see a significant need among this population for psychiatric medical management to help improve patients’ quality of life and allow them better control of their behavior. Mental health problems and substance use disorders are major health issues for more than half of patients seen, requiring prescribed medications for effective treatment.

The AAMRC Free Mental Health Clinic, physically located at GRACE Marketplace, Alachua County’s largest shelter for those experiencing homelessness, will provide no-cost prescription medications for uninsured mental health patients, allow the Clinic to stock more injectable medications and vaccines for an expanding patient base, stock more clinic and exam room supplies, fund additional lab testing, and help fund a medical rideshare agreement to transport patients for timely, specialized follow-up non-emergency medical treatments or diagnostic tests.

Onsite, live access to acute and chronic mental healthcare medications and case management will help reduce 911 calls by helping to prevent mental health behavioral crises requiring more invasive and expensive ER visits, as well as reducing behavioral incidents requiring law enforcement and/or EMS action.

On behalf of the mental health patients whose suffering can be somewhat relieved, we wish to sincerely express our gratitude for the UF Medical Guild’s generosity.

Grace Healthcare Services Corp thanks all organizations with whom it collaborates: UF Medical Guild, AAMRC/Florida Dept of Health, GRACE Marketplace, UF Mobile Outreach Clinic, Helping Hands, Equal Access Clinic, UF Psychiatry, City of Gainesville, and Alachua County.

  • Wonder why your taxes and insurance are so high?…

    “…will provide no-cost prescription medications for uninsured mental health patients, allow the Clinic to stock more injectable medications and vaccines…”

    Big pharma would sincerely like to thank all of you hard working Americans for subsidizing the distribution and uptake of their products! This is just one more merger of corporations and government in real time.

  • Wonder when UF is going to provide some free medical services to the suffering, tax paying, middle class? Yeah, I know, don’t hold my breath.

  • When you make your living from the homelessness industry like the leeches at Grace Marketplace, the last thing you want is for the problem to go away.

    Getting these bums addicted to even more drugs than they already are seems like a great way to ensure the problem keeps getting worse. As a bonus, the news about free drug giveaways will attract even more criminal parasites to Gainesville. What a great way to accelerate the decline of this city!

  • Sounds like if one has mental health issues and can’t afford treatment, you could simply go to Grace and claim homelessness to get free treatment and medication.

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