CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — Conway Medical Center has received a $350,000 grant from the Duke Endowment that will help make mental health and addiction services more accessible for underserved communities.
The grant will allow the hospital to provide more Horry County residents with mental health and substance abuse counseling. Specifically, it will allow the expansion of the United Way of Horry County’s Breaking Barriers of Mental Health program. CMC will help provide referrals to the program.
“Really, what it will enable us to do is partner with local resources to bring the right resources to bear, for patients in need of mental health- or addiction-type counseling,” said Dr. Paul Richardson, Conway Medical Center’s chief medical officer and vice president of medical education.
Richardson said patients come to CMC’s emergency department for mental health services but that the hospital does not specialize in psychiatric care. As a result, CMS is excited to help patients find licensed mental health and addiction counselors and to better help the patients they are trained to treat.