MORE HEALTH CARE

Finding treatment programs for individuals with mental illness and
drug or alcohol addictions will be simpler thanks to a two-year grant
awarded to the Gibson Recovery Center in Cape Girardeau.

The $453,809 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health will allow
the center to expand its treatment programs throughout the region and
fill a necessary gap in health care. The foundation, which is the
state's largest health-care funding organization, distributes money to
community organizations that serve the uninsured and underinsured in
84 eastern Missouri counties and the city of St. Louis -- the area
formerly served by Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Missouri, whose not-for
profit assets were used to create the foundation.

The grant for the Gibson Center comes at an opportune time, weeks
after a community survey listed access to health care and treatment
for substance abuse as top concerns for the region.

The Gibson Center serves Cape Girardeau, Perry, Bollinger, Scott and
Stoddard counties. It was chosen for the foundation grant because its
plan was designed to treat patients with both mental illness and
substance abuse and it would fill the gap for such programs in the
Bootheel.

Treating substance abuse is done in both residential and outpatient
programs at the Gibson Center. The grant will allow 200 more clients
to be seen by doctors and case workers. Currently the center treats
473 residential clients annually and 471 outpatient clients monthly.

The grant might even allow the Gibson Center to hire an on-site
psychiatrist, the center director says. Additional support staff will
be hired as well to handle the increase in patients.

Both the Missouri Foundation for Health and community leaders have
recognized the region's need for better care for people with mental
illness and those with substance abuse problems. The foundation's
grant will provide a good start for the community's attempt at
addressing those problems.