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Women's mental health clinic in Charlottesville expands

The Daily Progress - 5/24/2017

A Charlottesville women's mental health clinic has the capacity to serve more patients now that a renovation to its main building has been completed.

The Women's Initiative doubled the amount of clinical space in its primary office, on East High Street, after purchasing and renovating the first floor of its two-story building.

The clinic christened the renovated first floor with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday afternoon. The floor includes four new clinical offices, a training room and a large group activity space.

Standing in the new wood-floored activity room, Amanda Korman said it would provide a place for the staff to hold meditation, yoga, arts and exercise classes.

"This large room will help us with movement," said Korman, the program's communications director. "This whole space is about providing holistic care to help women overcome trauma."

Almost all of the clients at the Women's Initiative are either uninsured or underinsured. The nonprofit charges less than $5 for most of its counseling sessions.

The Women's Initiative will serve an estimated 3,500 people this year, according to Kerry Day, the clinic's development director. Staff members work in other locations, such as the Jefferson School City Center, but the main office is where they see most clients.

With the purchase of the first floor, the clinic expands from roughly 3,000 square feet to 6,000. In addition to the new activity room and new clinical offices, the floor has a training room and a supervision room that are connected by a one-way mirror and loudspeaker.

The space will allow staff to train other medical providers on providing counseling and psychological care in a realistic setting, according to signs posted around the room.

The renovation ensures the Women's Initiative will be able to see more patients. Day said they expect the number of uninsured patients seeking help through the program to rise.

"There is such a burgeoning need due to political and economic realities," she said.

State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, was on hand for Monday's ribbon-cutting. Deeds said low-income care programs such as the Women's Initiative will become increasingly important if Republicans in Congress successfully repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Deeds also criticized Republicans at the state level for refusing to budge on Medicaid expansion. Republicans have said Medicaid in its current state is too expensive and inefficient, but advocates say expansion would extend benefits to people who can't currently afford them.

"The failures at the national and state levels mean programs like this are more important than ever," Deeds said. "They are going to fill in the gaps."

A large portion of the clientele at the Women's Initiative - around 40 percent - have been referred by physicians, said Elizabeth Irvin, executive director. But an increasing percentage of them are referred by friends and family members, some of whom have sought help there before.

Korman said it's a sign that the stigma against seeking out help for mental health problems commonly faced by women - depression, anxiety and trauma - is beginning to fade.

"We're seeing more people recognize mental health as a part of overall health," she said. "But there's still a lot of work to do."