Grants Provide Care to Uninsured

WESTERN MASS. — The Mass. Medical Society and Alliance Charitable Foundation have awarded grants to two agencies in Western Mass. to provide health care services for the uninsured and underinsured.

Hilltown Community Health Center, with locations in Worthington and Huntington, received $35,000 to support behavioral health screening and assessment in primary care visits and to increase access to care for uninsured and underserved patients. The agency serves 11 communities in Hampden and Hampshire counties.

VIM Berkshires, Great Barrington, a free health care clinic serving people in the Berkshire County area who are without employer-provided health insurance or governmental assistance programs or are unable to purchase individual health care, was awarded $15,000 to expand its medical services. The clinic serves adults who live and work primarily in Great Barrington, Sheffield, Lee, and Pittsfield.

The two agencies were among eight that received awards from the foundation in its latest round of grantmaking.

Other recipients include Boston Coalition for Adult Immunization, awarded $25,000 to support efforts to immunize at-risk citizens in Boston; Southbridge Interfaith Hospitality Network, awarded $20,000 to support services to homeless pregnant women and young children; Dotwell, Inc. of Dorchester, awarded $15,000 to support the agency’s Diabetes Initiative; Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, awarded $10,000 to support its Medical Advocacy Program, serving survivors of sexual assault, and its Community Awareness and Prevention Services Program, providing training to medical professionals; New England Hemophilia Association, awarded $5,000 to support its Red Flag New England Program, an effort to raise awareness, improve diagnosis, and create better treatment outcomes for von Willebrand disease; and Transition House of Cambridge, awarded $5,000 to support its Dating Violence Intervention Program, providing individual or group counseling to young women ages 10 to 20 who are victims of violence.