Casa de Salud Launches Mental Health Collaborative
ST. LOUIS (July 17, 2017) – Casa de Salud has begun renovations of a building that will house the organization’s Mental Health Collaborative (MHC), an effort to provide mental health services for people who are uninsured, with a focus on immigrants and refugees.
The building, located at 1015 S. Compton, is owned by Saint Louis University, which will lease the facility to Casa rent-free.
Once the renovation is complete, the MHC will provide space for four partner organizations to deliver behavioral health services: Bilingual International Assistant Services; Saint Francis Community Services; Saint Louis University Medical Family Therapy Program; and St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. It will also include incubation spaces for individual practitioners who, in exchange for devoting a portion of their caseload to Casa’s patients, will receive cost-free space and back-office services. In addition, the Mental Health Collaborative will work with regional universities to provide student learning experiences.
“I am very excited at the prospect of bringing together high-quality agencies and institutions of higher learning to provide access to behavioral healthcare that is greatly needed,” said Jorge Riopedre, president of Casa de Salud. “Combined with the primary care that we already offer, this is a tremendous opportunity to practice integrated care that holistically treats the physical and mental aspects of a person’s health, all in one place and at an affordable cost.”
Edward S. Macias, Chairman of the Board for Casa, added that, “The Mental Health Collaborative will leverage Casa’s cultural expertise and proven volunteer-provider model with our partners’ capabilities in treating mental illness so that we can together address the lack of availability of behavioral health services for some of the most vulnerable members of our community.”
Construction of the Mental Health Collaborative building starts later this month and is slated to be completed by next January, with service delivery beginning on February 1, 2018. The project is made possible in part by a generous donation from the William T. Kemper Foundation, Commerce Bank, Trustee.
Casa de Salud is a nonprofit organization that facilitates and delivers low-cost, high-quality healthcare for patients who do not have health insurance, with a special emphasis on immigrants and refugees. Casa also assists patients in connecting with existing healthcare providers and working with them to achieve the best possible outcomes. For more information, call 314-977-1250 or visit CasadeSaludstl.org.
