Washington, D.C. – Two regional health centers are in line to receive multi-million-dollar awards from the federal government as part of a $17.16 million package coming to West Virginia to strengthen health care services to address sexually transmitted diseases and bolster scientific research projects around mental health and environmental hazards.
Community Health Systems of Beckley, doing business as Access Health, will receive a $3.37 million award, and New River Health Association of Scarbro has been approved for $2.58 million by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito announced the appropriations in a joint press release on Wednesday.
The two other centers to receive funding are Community Care of West Virginia, Rock Cave ($4,641,437), and Shenandoah Valley Medical System, Martinsburg ($4,627,591).
The HHS Health Resources and Services Administration Health Center Cluster Grant Program provides money to support health centers across the country, especially in rural and geographically isolated areas.
The HHS Center for Disease Control (CDC) Strengthening STD Prevention and Control for Health Departments provides funding to state health departments to help prevent, diagnose and treat sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). To that end, $1,070,880 is scheduled for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
IstoVisio in Morgantown will receive $798,921 to support scientific research projects around mental health.
The HHS National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Biological Response to Environmental Health Hazards Grant Program is providing $76,000 to West Virginia University to research organizations to improve scientific understanding of how chemical and physical agents cause pathological changes in molecules, cells, tissues and organs, and how these changes lead to diseases.