For $30 a day new clinic will care for elderly, disabled

The St. Charles Community Health Center is close to breaking ground on a 27,000 square-foot facility in Norco that will provide healthcare, dentistry, podiatry and psychiatry services.

The St. Charles Community Health Center has been trying to build a new clinic on the East Bank for years and recently received grant money for a new facility from a U.S. Health Resources and Services program. The grant will pay $1.3 million in operating money over the next two years and two acres on the corner of Cathy Road and River Road  have been donated by Shell.

Valero has also donated $400,000 towards construction of the new facility, which expects to break ground in October.
The new facility will be two floors and will provide adult and pediatric primary healthcare. Along with dentistry, podiatry and psychiatric services, the center will also offer behavioral health counseling and an adult day  care.
The adult day care is for frail or disabled citizens who have special needs. There will be a nurse on hand and the center will care for those adults from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. from Monday through Friday.

The cost of the program will be $30 a day.

“This service is for those who don’t feel comfortable leaving disabled or frail adults home by themselves while they work or run errands,” Julia Bodden, a spokeswoman for the health center, said.

The behavioral health counseling program is actually two components. The first consists of three psychiatrists, two of which specialize in children, that will perform evaluation and counseling services.

The other component is the substance abuse program. The Norco center will offer drug testing, which is open to anyone, for $15. They will also handle court-mandated substance abuse counseling.

Additional services offered at the site include Medicaid registration, medication assistance programs, case management and care coordination services.

Until the new center is built, the health center has been offering healthcare services in the Norco area through a 2,200-square-foot modular building that has served as a temporary clinic.