Highmark Foundation Awards Grant to Leahy Clinic
The Highmark Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to The University of Scranton’s Edward R. Leahy Jr. Center Clinic for the Uninsured to support its efforts in chronic disease management among a vulnerable population. From left: Meg Hambrose, director of corporate and foundation relations at the University; Andrea Mantione, D.N.P., director of the University’s Leahy Community Health and Family Center; Jane L. Brooks, program manager for Highmark Foundation; and Debra Pellegrino, Ed.D., dean of the University’s Panuska College of Professional Studies.The Highmark Foundation recently awarded a grant of $100,000 to The University of Scranton’s Edward R. Leahy Jr. Center Clinic for the Uninsured to support its efforts in chronic disease management among a vulnerable population. This grant will enhance the role of the nurse navigator to provide added care coordination, intervention, education and healthy life style support to Leahy Clinic patients.
“All too often, people who need health services do not routinely visit traditional sites of care, leaving them at risk for undiagnosed chronic diseases,” said Yvonne Cook, president, Highmark Foundation. “The services and resources that Leahy Clinic provides are an important point of access in connecting underserved and at risk communities with essential care and education.”
The Leahy Clinic, now in its 12th year of operation at the University’s Panuska College of Professional Studies, provides free non-emergency healthcare to uninsured Lackawanna County residents who may otherwise forego healthcare due to cost or seek care in hospital emergency rooms. Through the innovative collaboration of community health provider volunteers with undergraduate and graduate student volunteers and faculty members, as well as other University resources, the Leahy Clinic has been able to offer free care that includes medical, counseling, physical therapy and low vision services, along with exercise and nutrition classes.
