August 29th, 2024 by WCBC Radio

The Western Maryland Area Health Education Center has received a $4.5 million dollar grant to support a regional health initiative in Allegany and Garrett counties.  Working with partners in health and health services, the Health Equity Resource Communities grant will resolve health inequities in the rural areas of Western Maryland. Melissa Clark, AHEC West Associate Director, said applying for the grant was a collaborative effort that started last fall…

"We're all sitting there. We're like, "well why aren't  we doing this as a collaborative effort for Western Maryland?" So, we started in October it was submitted,  I want to say,  like mid-December. We had to go present in June because we made it through the first round or whatever; we presented in June and it was awarded in July."

The initiative will take programs into communities in Allegany and Garrett counties with health fairs and screenings along with social resource programs…

"We literally are going out into 13 ZIP codes across the two the counties and setting up shop so to speak, and having conversations, providing services doing screenings, making sure people are getting into services that they need etc."