Mobile Health Center to Serve Hudson Valley Farmworkers, Needy

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Cardinal Dolan lauded ArchCare and Hudson River HealthCare for joining forces to make a difference for those in need with a new mobile health center.

“Look at what we can do when we come together,’’ said Cardinal Dolan in addressing the 150 people in attendance at the HRHCare Farmworkers Health Center – The Alamo in Goshen before blessing the mobile health center on June 29.

“This community has brought its hands together in prayer and has wrapped its arms around people in need and has accomplished something great. So thank God for the relationship and cooperation that we see so radiant here.’’

The 33-foot Mobile Health Center is bringing health care services to agricultural workers and others in need of care in the Hudson Valley. The center includes two examination rooms and a restroom, and patients can have their sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure checked among other tests, as they would in a doctor’s office.

The mobile health center is expected to serve more than 1,800 patients annually in the Hudson Valley with an estimated 75 percent of visitors having no ability to pay for the services.

“This mobile health center is not only serving others by providing access, but it’s providing health services to those who have no ability to pay,’’ said Scott LaRue, president and CEO of ArchCare.

“This is what our mission is about, and it’s what the archdiocese and Cardinal Dolan have asked us to do by getting out to the northern parts of the archdiocese to fill these needs. This is a milestone for our mission in the Archdiocese of New York.’’

ArchCare, the health care ministry in the archdiocese, and HRHCare, one of the nation’s largest health providers, are funding the effort. HRHCare will manage the mobile health center and provide the staff to operate it.

“It gives such a spirit to this joint effort to have Cardinal Dolan here to bless this,’’ said Anne Nolon, president and CEO of HRHCare. “It’s an exciting start to what will continue to be an ongoing really productive and important relationship between two organizations that have a common vision of serving those who are in need.’’

The mobile health center had been to 10 sites to serve patients before the official blessing, with the stops including Dover Plains, Florida and Plattekill.

“We found 40 percent of the people who came in did not have a primary care provider,’’ Ms. Nolon said. “So we are reaching already in a small time it’s been in operation to an important group of people who need to get access to health care. So, we’re very pleased.’’

LaRue said Cardinal Dolan reached out to him two years ago, asking to find ways to serve the agricultural areas of Orange County and needy parishes in the archdiocese. Ms. Nolon said she received phone calls from the state department of health and the governor’s office, encouraging HRHCare and ArchCare to put this together as one.

“I thank God for the possibility that this gives us as believers to follow the teachings of Jesus,’’ Cardinal Dolan said. “We know how close the sick were to the heart of Christ. Jesus didn’t wait for people to come to him. He went out to heal them.

“That’s what this represents. We can no longer sit around and wait for people to come in. You all deal with people who can’t come in. So guess what? We go to them.”

Information: www.hrhcare.org/mobilehealth or 1-844-HRH-CARE.