The Wright Center for Community Health received a $5,000 grant from the Robert H. Spitz Foundation in support of the collaborative Healthy MOMS Helping MOMS Out of Poverty program. The grant helps participants with the initial costs of paying for security deposits, rent, and utility bills so they can secure safe housing. Participating in the ceremonial check presentation, from left, are Frank Caputo, grants and communications coordinator, Scranton Area Community Foundation; Maria Kolcharno, director of addiction services and a leader of the Healthy MOMS program, and Marcella Garvin, lead case manager, Healthy MOMS program, The Wright Center for Community Health, and Brittany Pagnotti, communications manager, Scranton Area Community Foundation.
The Wright Center for Community Health was recently awarded a $5,000 grant from the Robert H. Spitz Foundation in support of the collaborative Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support program (Healthy MOMS) that focuses on helping pregnant women and new mothers overcome addiction and embrace a life in recovery.
The grant will support working mothers in the Helping MOMS Out of Poverty (HOP) program who need help with initial costs of paying for security deposits, rent and utility bills to secure safe housing, an important step in maintaining their recovery and independently caring for their children.
Healthy MOMS participants are offered a variety of necessary services that include medication-assisted treatment and addiction services, counseling, primary health care, OB-GYN care, parenting tips, legal advice and a range of other support programs. The program promotes the well-being of both mom and newborn, ideally engaging them in wrap-around services until the child turns two years old.
Launched in 2018, the program serves Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. To date, Healthy MOMS has supported more than 300 mothers and 193 babies.
“We are grateful to the Robert H. Spitz Foundation for their financial support and the various community partnerships that enable our program to help two generations in our communities,” said Maria Kolcharno, the director of addiction services and a leader of the Healthy MOMS program at The Wright Center for Community Health. “The lack of affordable, safe housing continues to be a challenge for women enrolled in Healthy MOMS. This grant will help women in our program afford safe housing in which to raise their children and secure their future.”
The Robert H. Spitz Foundation awards grants to registered nonprofit organizations that support initiatives and programs serving the residents of Lackawanna County and Northeast Pennsylvania. Among the foundation’s four priority areas are “programs that aim to break the cycle of poverty, remove economic barriers, and encourage independence in adults and children through access to safe, affordable housing, transportation, education and other important issues.”
To date, the Robert H. Spitz Foundation has distributed more than $4.6 million in grants to the community. The Scranton Area Community Foundation has served as administrator of the foundation since 2016. Learn more at safdn.org.
An employee of The Wright Center for Community Health attended a summit held Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the White House complex, presenting a summary of the organization’s success in vaccinating certain vulnerable populations against COVID-19.
Melissa Bonnerwith, project manager for public health education and AmeriCorps VISTA at The Wright Center, delivered a poster presentation during the “Summit on COVID-19 Equity and What Works Showcase.”
The event was organized by The White House Office for COVID-19 Response. Participants included U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other high-ranking federal health officials.
The Wright Center was among a “select group of community organizations” invited to send a representative to the summit to “highlight evidence-based programs and initiatives that have moved the needle on equitable COVID-19 outcomes,” according to organizers.
Bonnerwith shared insights gained by The Wright Center as a result of its months-long involvement in a grant-funded Community Vaccine Ambassador Project, which was funded by the CDC. The pandemic-fighting project was conducted in partnership with the National Association of Community Health Centers and the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.
Only 15 health centers and organizations in the nation were selected for the Vaccine Ambassador Project. Those organizations, located in 12 states, received grant funding to focus on administering coronavirus vaccines to people in populations of special concern, including individuals with substance use disorders and individuals experiencing homelessness.
The Wright Center’s team members exceeded expectations and provided about 1,600 vaccine doses during the project period to people with substance use disorders and more than 180 doses to people experiencing homelessness.
Melissa Bonnerwith, project manager of public health education and AmeriCorps VISTA at The Wright Center, delivered the poster presentation during the “Summit on COVID-19 Equity and What Works Showcase” at the White House Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The CDC asked Bonnerwith to co-present at this week’s summit with Kimberly Chiaramonte, a senior project officer with the Homeless Council.
Bonnerwith, who oversaw The Wright Center’s grant project, attributed its effectiveness largely to the ability of its “vaccine ambassadors” – consisting of three community health workers and three certified recovery specialists – to build rapport and trust with people in the populations of focus. In some instances, it took multiple conversations over several encounters with an individual before that person would decide to roll up a sleeve and get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The project also relied on the strategic use of The Wright Center’s mobile medical vehicle, which was deployed into the community 79 times as part of this grant initiative, Bonnerwith said. She also credited the involvement of The Wright Center’s strong community partners. Among those critical to the success of the project were the Office of Drug and Alcohol Programs for Lackawanna and Susquehanna counties; the Community Intervention Center and St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen, both in Scranton; and The Hazleton Integration Project and La Casa Dominicana, both in Hazleton.
Melissa Bonnerwith, right, project manager of public health education and AmeriCorps VISTA at The Wright Center, co-presented the research poster at the White House Eisenhower Executive Office Building with Kimberly Chiaramonte, a senior project officer with the National Health Care for the Homeless Council
The Wright Center’s patient data show higher rates of vaccination among the two populations of focus during the grant project, which incentivized participation with retail gift cards, than in the months prior to the project.
“We used targeted interventions, and ultimately saw that our rate of vaccination among people experiencing homelessness doubled and our rate among people with substance use disorder increased 34 percent,” said Bonnerwith. “That’s pretty exciting.”
Since the time COVID-19 vaccines first became available in December 2020, The Wright Center’s providers have administered more than 48,000 vaccine doses.
The Wright Center for Community Health, headquartered in Scranton, was designated in 2019 as a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike. Today, it operates a growing network of primary care practices that provide high-quality, affordable and nondiscriminatory care to patients from five counties in Northeast Pennsylvania.
It is affiliated with The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, the nation’s largest Health Resources and Services Administration-funded Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Safety Net Consortium.
Community health workers play a vital role in improving the health and welfare of The Wright Center for Community Health’s patients. Community health workers at The Wright Center, including, first row from left, Bonnie Dunleavy, CCHW; Amanda Vommaro, CCHW; and Julie Makhoul; second row, Nick Sardo, Michelle Kobeski, Scarlet Pujols Recio and Stacey Major.
Wright Center utilizes emerging professional field to address the needs of patients
One of the fastest growing, most in-demand roles in health care today is one many people have never heard of: Community health worker or CHW.
A community health worker’s role can best be described as part social worker, part counselor and part advocate, with perhaps a sprinkle of magician thrown in, which would explain their ability to solve many of a patient’s most pressing problems.
For example, community health workers are deeply familiar with the social services network in a particular geographic area and can usually assist a patient with securing life necessities – such as temporary housing, utility assistance, transportation to medical appointments, insurance, food or clothing – when the patient previously had been uncertain where to turn or got stopped by roadblocks in the system.
“This is a good first step for a career in health care,” said Amanda Vommaro, CCHW, director of patient-centered services and supervisor of the community health workers at The Wright Center for Community Health. “It’s more like a social worker. You help people take care of their social needs so they are better able to prioritize and take care of their medical needs.”
Employment of community health workers across the United States is projected to grow 12 percent between 2021 and 2031 – much faster than the average for other occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan called for hiring 100,000 community health workers over 10 years starting in 2021 to support the prevention and control of COVID-19. Many of these jobs, which are increasingly valued among the health care industry for reasons beyond the pandemic and its challenges, have yet to be filled in Northeast Pennsylvania, perhaps due to the unfamiliarity of the position.
Bonnie Dunleavy, CCHW, a community health worker at The Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley Practice, assists a patient.
To help address the shortage, the Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center (AHEC) offers a 100-hour training program that is designed to provide the core competencies needed for work in community-based and inpatient settings. Community health workers typically need a minimum of a high school diploma. They must complete the required training offered by an institution such as AHEC as well as extensive on-the-job training at a facility such as one of The Wright Center’s primary care practices.
The Wright Center has hired five community health workers in 2022, and another three CHW candidates are currently completing their training.
The training provides comprehensive information about how to efficiently connect patients to appropriate health care and other social and community resources that are specific to the training site location, be it a rural community like Jermyn or urban center like Wilkes-Barre.
“We work with local food banks and shelters, public transportation and housing services, and other organizations to help people in our communities,” said Vommaro, “people who are our neighbors.”
The Wright Center and The Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center have formed a strong collaborative relationship to continue to recruit, train and certify community health workers from the region to serve the local community. Candidates are being sought from across The Wright Center’s five-county service area, including places such as Greater Scranton, the Wilkes-Barre area and Hazleton. Professionals who are bilingual are especially in demand.
These front-line public health workers assist in improving the quality of care and breaking down cultural, language and other common barriers to treatment. Overall, they can improve health outcomes and save money by acting as a bridge between patients and the health care and social service systems. By building trust with patients, they learn about their lives, their resources and needs, and the barriers they face to being as healthy as possible.
For instance, community health workers can help patients understand their health insurance options and navigate the application process, or help elderly patients secure needed durable medical equipment that they otherwise could not afford.
Bonnie Dunleavy, CCHW, spent more than 20 years working in health care before becoming a community health worker in 2018. “I started doing this before it became a position,” she said. “I really am a people-person. I always liked helping people, to try to figure out solutions to their problems and make a difference in their lives.”
One of the biggest challenges that both Dunleavy and Vommaro see among their patients is finding affordable housing.
“There is such a lack of public housing,” said Dunleavy, who uses every resource available to her to secure a safe, warm bed at night for her patients. “With the cost of rent, the cost of inflation, more and more people are finding themselves being evicted or they are choosing to live in their cars.”
Most people faced with this dilemma will try to live with family or friends for a while, bouncing from home to home, Dunleavy said. Others go to shelters, which begin to fill up during the cold-weather season. “We need more resources out in the community to assist people,” she said. “But we are doing the best with what we have.”
Dunleavy and Vommaro are currently among more than 500 community health workers employed in the Keystone State, according to information released in September 2022 at the inaugural Pennsylvania Community Health Worker Conference in Boalsburg.
Nick Sardo, a community health worker at The Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley Practice, takes notes while talking to a patient during a recent visit.
Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, views community health workers as a key to providing whole-person care because they help to identify and resolve social and economic issues a patient might be experiencing outside the clinic, such as food insecurity or lack of adequate housing. Through their efforts, the CHWs are helping entire families and connecting formerly marginalized populations to the affordable, nondiscriminatory and high-quality health services they deserve.
“Community health workers are essential members of our provider care teams who elevate our efforts to promote wellness and resiliency; to increase utilization of preventive services; to better manage chronic illnesses; and to address the complex socioeconomic determinants of health,” Thomas-Hemak said.
“These passionate and talented, front-line public health workers are trusted members of our team and the communities they serve,” she added. “By acting as front-line agents of change, they are reducing health care inequities and health disparities in our medically underserved communities.”
For more information about the role of community health workers or to apply for a training course, visit www.pachw.org/education-training. Current community health workers can apply for open positions at The Wright Center for Community Health by visiting TheWrightCenter.org/careers.
The Wright Center for Community Health has promoted Marcella Garvin, Shavertown, to lead case manager of the collaborative Healthy Maternal Opiate Medical Support (MOMS) program. Garvin joined the regional nonprofit primary and preventive care provider in 2020 as a case manager for the Healthy MOMS program.
Marcella Garvin
In her previous role, Garvin provided care and support to mothers in recovery from substance use disorder. She focused on developing and expanding the Healthy MOMs program in Luzerne and Wyoming counties, collecting and analyzing data related to the program.
As the lead manager for the Healthy MOMs program, Garvin is responsible for providing comprehensive case management services to address the opioid epidemic as it affects pregnant women, newborns and their families. The position will collaborate with community partners to assist with pregnancy-related issues and work closely with the program’s community partners. Garvin’s additional responsibilities include a range of patient-centered services that link clients with medication-assisted treatment and addiction services, counseling, primary care, OB-GYN care, and a range of other supports.
Garvin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in linguistics from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA in business administration and technology from Carlow University. In addition, she is a certified recovery specialist and a certified addiction counselor. A member of the Luzerne County Breastfeeding Coalition and County Cares, Garvin is also pursuing her certification as a certified lactation counselor.
The Healthy MOMs program is modeled after a similar program in Ohio, using a collaborative, team approach to treat mothers with substance use disorder in a holistic manner. Launched in 2018, the program is offered in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties.
To date, 199 infants have been born into the Healthy MOMs program and 149 mothers are actively engaged in it. For more information, call 570-955-7821 or visit HealthyMOMS.org.
Nora Dillon, Clarks Summit, has been promoted to the position of director of government relations for The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education. She has held various administrative roles with the Scranton-based nonprofit enterprise since March 2019, and most recently served as executive assistant and legislative liaison.
In her new post, Dillon will build and foster relationships with local, state and federal legislators, and administrators and other government stakeholders, while communicating The Wright Center’s key public health and health workforce priorities to meet community needs. She will work closely with The Wright Center’s senior vice president of enterprise integrity as well as the vice president of primary care and public health policy, who operates from Harrisburg to maintain contact with state government and policy-making networks.
Dillon received her Master of Arts in public administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from Marywood University in Scranton and a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York. She also has earned a certification in nonprofit management from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Prior to joining The Wright Center, Dillon worked in multiple nonprofit and academic settings in Northeast Pennsylvania, honing skills including grant writing and administration as well as fundraising and donor relations.
Nora Dillon
She previously served as director of development for the Women’s Resource Center in Scranton. She also had been an assistant director at Keystone College in La Plume, working first in its Environmental Education Institute, then in similar capacities for its Corporate & Foundation Relations and Campus Engagement offices. While at Keystone College, she was active on various committees, including as vice chair of its Administrative Council, and acted for several years as the college’s sustainability outreach coordinator.
A 2011 graduate of Leadership Lackawanna, Dillon has experience in conference and event planning and program coordination. Her new role will involve the orchestration of various advocacy events and forums. She also will educate employees, resident physicians and fellows about the enterprise’s public health priorities, engaging them in advocacy-related activities to advance The Wright Center’s mission.
The Wright Center’s mission is to improve the health and welfare of the communities it serves through inclusive and responsive health services and the sustainable renewal of an inspired, competent workforce that is privileged to serve.
The Wright Center achieves its mission through two complementary organizations: The Wright Center for Community Health and The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. The former organization operates a growing network of primary health care practices in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wayne counties, offering high-quality, affordable care to individuals of all income levels, including the underinsured and uninsured. The latter organization annually trains more than 200 highly skilled and compassionate physicians in residency and fellowship programs, helping to address the nation’s shortage of primary care providers and related health care inequities.
A board-certified family medicine physician, with a deep interest in the integration of oral health into primary care, has joined The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education where she will train and educate the next generation of physicians and collaboratively provide primary care for adults and children of all ages as a preceptor alongside a high-quality empaneled care team of resident physicians.
Dr. Stephanie A. Gill
Dr. Stephanie A. Gill received her Doctor of Medicine from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and completed her residency in family medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s St. Margaret Hospital in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania. Gill completed a fellowship in faculty development at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she also earned a multidisciplinary Master of Public Health degree.
As the associate program director and a member of the physician faculty for The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s Regional Family Medicine Residency, Gill will provide administrative and clinical oversight of the educational program, provide patient care, precept family medicine residents, and teach and supervise resident physicians and medical students at clinical sites. She is accepting patients at the Kingston Practice, 2 Sharpe St.
Overall, more than 250 resident physicians are enrolled in The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s five residency and three fellowship programs.
For the past 10 years, Gill has served as a physician faculty member and as an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine (PSCOM).
She continues to serve as an adjunct faculty member at PSCOM. She was also a physician at the Penn State Medical Group Camp Hill where she provided a full spectrum of family medicine care and was an attending physician at Penn State Health Hershey Medical Center where she provided inpatient services for family and community medicine.
Gill is a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, American Association of Family Physicians, The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, Family Medicine Education Consortium, American Academy of Family Physicians Oral Health Member Interest Group and North American Primary Care Research Group.
Her scholarly research interests include the integration of oral health and pediatric caries prevention into primary care. Gill is the chairperson of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Oral Health Collaborative, an advisory board member of Harvard University’s One Hundred Million Mouths Project and a steering committee member of Smiles for Life: A National Oral Health Curriculum.
Patients can schedule appointments at the most convenient location by using the express online scheduling service at TheWrightCenter.org. To learn more about The Wright Center’s mission and integrated health care services, call 570-230-0019 or visit TheWrightCenter.org.
