LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Jefferson County unveiled a new mobile health clinic Wednesday to offer services to more folks in rural settings.
It's all about getting into the community and meeting their needs, instead of expecting people to come to them, Director of Clinic Services with Jefferson County Public Health Max Johnson said.
Among many things, they'll over on-site vaccinations, sexual health services, substance use reversals and education.
"We realized that expecting people to come directly to us wasn't realistic for everybody, it can be a little bit of a burden, and as public health servants, our job is to reduce those burdens as much as possible," Johnson said.
This is something they've been wanting to do since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Johnson.
"This was kind of our promise to the community of saying, 'We heard you. We see you.' We're bringing these things to you to reduce those burdens and be a partner and your better long term health outcomes," Johnson said.
It may sound familiar to you. Johnson said they've been doing something similar out of fleet vehicles, but that didn't allow them to meet people where they're at like the mobile units do.
"Solar capability that does allow us to go much deeper into communities for longer amounts of time where we would have to require a power grid before now, we're actually able to take that to them, maintain our freezer and fridge temperatures for our vaccines, be able to offer a little bit more comfort in a small clinic space," he said.
The plan is to take the van to different counties and municipalities around that have programs to people out, partner with them and offer these services.
