The Free Medical Clinic Expands Behavioral Health Services
The Free Medical Clinic is part of a coalition working to expand access to behavioral health care for uninsured adults. This initiative utilizes a new telehealth-enabled Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) and is a partnership with the South Carolina Free Clinic Association and MUSC Health.
Funding for this expansion is provided by The Leon Levine Foundation. The Collaborative Care Model integrates behavioral health support directly into the primary care setting. This allows patients already receiving care at The Free Medical Clinic to also access behavioral health assessment, care management, and psychiatric consultation.
Caryn Pumphrey, executive director of The Free Medical Clinic, noted the challenges uninsured patients face in finding affordable behavioral health care. Under this model, MUSC provides centralized behavioral health care management, enabling The Free Medical Clinic to remain the patient’s primary point of care without needing to establish a separate behavioral health program or add specialized staff.
