Mountain Valleys Health Centers (MVHC), seeks to sustain and enhance the quality of life in rural America by advancing an understanding of rural issues. Through its various programs and initiatives, MVHC strongly supports the continuing education of our rural youth. The 2019 scholarship application is available here.
Mountain Valleys Health Centers is pleased to announce one of our physicians, Dr. Daniel Dahle, has been named Country Doctor of the Year!!
The Staff Care Country Doctor of the Year Award is presented annually to physicians who embody the spirit of America’s rural providers through their devotion, excellence, and unparalleled patient care. There were numerous submissions nationwide and Mountain Valleys would like to congratulate Dr. Dahle on this prestigious award.
“We are ecstatic for Dr. Dahle,” says Dave Jones, CEO for Mountain Valleys. “He has been with Mountain Valleys Health Centers for over 30 years and we are extremely grateful to have him on staff. I can’t think of a more deserving physician to receive this award. We would also like to invite our patients and friends to join us for an award ceremony on Friday, April 12, 2019, at 4:00 p.m. It will be a special day to celebrate Dr. Dahle and all are welcome. The ceremony will be at the Big Valley High School gymnasium in Bieber, CA.” Read the press release from Staff Care by clicking the link here.
The Staff Care Country Doctor of the Year Award is presented annually to physicians who embody the spirit of America’s rural providers through their devotion, excellence, and unparalleled patient care. There were over 60 submissions nationwide and Mountain Valleys would like congratulate Dr. Dahle on being a provisional finalist! On Tuesday, January 15, 2019, representatives from Staff Care interviewed patients, job shadowed Dr. Dahle, and were given tours of the Big Valley Health Center and Mayers Memorial Hospital District. The day was quite compelling and teary eyes were abundant as beloved stories were told of Dr. Dahle’s unprecedented patient care. Please stay tuned for more details in the next few weeks on the final selection announcement.
I found out I had breast cancer at the age of 50. It was June of 2016 and my husband had been after me to get a mammogram for some time since I had skipped getting one in 2015. I wasn’t having any symptoms and I felt fine. I received a call just a few days after receiving my Mammogram at MD Imaging. It was Sharon Hanson letting me know that I needed a sonogram because they saw something in my mammogram. I also needed to get a biopsy. Just a few days later, Sharon gave me the bad news. I never thought in a million years that I would hear those words from anyone.
The hardest thing I had to do was tell my kids that I had breast cancer. Each handled it differently. Three days later, I went to see a surgeon, Dr. Philben, in Redding. Within days, I had my first surgery, a lumpectomy. At my follow up visit a week later, I found out that I needed another surgery due to the fact that my margins were not clear (which meant that Dr. Philben didn’t get all of the cancer the first time) and she would have to go back in and take more tissue. At the end of two weeks, I received the news that the margins were clear and now I could start treatment, which for me meant Chemo and Radiation treatments. I had 16 Chemo treatments altogether. The first four were two weeks apart and the remaining 12 were every week. Then I had six weeks of Radiation, going five days a week for six weeks. It was a very long few months. I had a wonderful support system through my family, friends, and this wonderful community. They all came together and helped me every step of the way. On my darkest days, my husband Rod, my daughter Heather her husband Robert, my son Zack and his wife Shunell, my daughter Dani Jo and her husband Adam, and my son Chad, along with all my grandkids and so many more family members and friends, helped me remember how much I had to live for. I had good days and bad for sure.
Now, I cannot stress enough to every woman how important getting a yearly mammogram is. It can save your life as it did mine and so many other women every year. It’s only a few minutes of being uncomfortable, but it is worth it. I cannot stress enough to each and every one out there the importance of going once a year and having this life-saving x-ray done. I am living proof that it can save your life. As we head into the new year make it your new year’s resolution to get your mammogram.
Stick to having it done every year. Make a day of it. Go in the morning, have some lunch with friends and/or family and do some shopping afterward. Don’t put it off!!! I have been cancer free for 2 years now. I feel wonderful and I live each day to its fullest. I would like to give a special thank you to Sharon Hanson, without her taking such great care of me then and now, I wouldn’t have known what to do. She was always there to answer questions and make my treatment go as well as possible. Thank you, Sharon, you are awesome! -Lisa Gallagher
Screenings to discuss with your provider!
Mountain Valleys Health Centers (MVHC) is now offering Suboxone treatment in Burney and surrounding areas! Opioid dependency is a life-threatening condition, and the staff of Mountain Valleys Health Centers are here to offer our support in fighting this health crisis in our local community. Suboxone is currently the most effective treatment available for those struggling with prescription opioid or heroin dependency and is available at MVHC to everyone in our area. Some assistance with transportation and medications is available based on income, etc. Please contact Sam Glenn, LCSW at the Burney Health Center at (530) 335-5457 ext. 2009 for any questions or concerns about the MVHC Suboxone Group Program, or for assistance with scheduling an initial appointment.
Season’s greetings to our neighbors, friends and patients! Your support and trust mean the world to us. We’re happy to provide quality medical, dental, and behavioral health care for the whole family.
We would like to extend a Merry Christmas and our heartfelt best wishes to you and yours for a happy & healthy holiday! Our offices will be closed December 22-25, 2018 in observance of Christmas. We will open again on December 26, 2018. Thank you!
Mountain Valleys Health Centers and Shasta YMCA are offering a new Diabetes Prevention Program to residents of Shasta County in 2019! The 12-month program is designed to enable adults to make lifestyle changes that will improve their overall health and reduce their risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes. The program will begin January 2019! To find out more information, please call our Burney Health Center at 530-335-5457 and ask for Martha Ugbinada. We will see you there!
Mountain Valleys Health Centers is proud to announce the Butte Valley Health Center has teamed up with Great Northern Services – GNS to provide a Mini School Pantry at the clinic. This innovative program helps to set up food pantries that are conveniently located for families of students in need. The school pantries complement school breakfast and lunch programs, providing access to food for children and their families. Staff at the Butte Valley Health Center would like community friends to know this is also an emergency food bank. Individuals and households are welcome to receive food whenever they are in need. The School Pantry Program wouldn’t be possible without the efforts of school administrators, teachers, the donor community and volunteers working together to combat hunger. A special thanks to the whole Butte Valley Care Team for working together to make this happen! The Butte Valley Health Center is located at 610 W. 3rd St. Dorris, CA 96023. Their hours of operation are M-F 8:00 AM-5:00 PM. For more information please call 530-397-8411.
Last week, Mountain Valleys Health Centers (MVHC), was awarded $1,035,000 in opioid specific grants to help combat the crisis ravaging the region.
MVHC was one of 1,232 community health centers across the nation to receive funding from the $352 million awarded to increase access to substance use disorder and mental health services through the Expanding Access to Quality Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Services. The $285,000 grant will support the renovation of the Weed Health Center to expand behavioral health services as well as furnish the behavioral health suites in the almost completed Fall River Valley Health Center.
MVHC also is one of two organizations in the state and one of 26 in the nation to receive $750,000 over the next three years as part of the $6.5 million the expanded Rural Health Opioid Program. The funding will continue to support the collaborative work initiated by the CA299 Health Collaborative, a network of health care providers in the rural counties of Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, and Siskiyou Counties. The program will expand the integration of behavioral health services into the primary care setting in Siskiyou and Modoc Counties, expand the implementation of the health information exchange, and support service expansion within the region for behavioral health clients through need identification and collaborative partnerships. And lastly, the program will enable the region’s health care providers to develop a regional approach to pain management and medication procedures to assure the best outcomes for the patients and support expanded full-scope care management.
“We are very fortunate to have received these grant funds and through the hard work of all our clinic staff we will be able to make a real difference for those in our communities suffering from mental health and substance use disorder,” said Dave Jones, Mountain Valleys Health Centers’ CEO.
Eileen Tremaine, MPA, will remain as Network Director, and Raymond Mandel, Behavioral Health Director for MVHC, will take the lead on the Rural Health Opioid Program and will oversee the day-to-day management of the program which will include the following member organizations:
MVHC’s grants are a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awards of over $1 billion in opioid-specific grants to help combat the crisis ravaging our country. The awards support HHS’s Five-Point Opioid Strategy, which was launched last year and enhanced this week. New data unveiled recently by HHS suggests that efforts are now yielding progress at the national level.
“Addressing the opioid crisis with all the resources possible and the best science we have is a top priority for President Trump and for everyone at HHS,” said Secretary Alex Azar. “The more than $1 billion in additional funding that we provided this week will build on progress we have seen in tackling this epidemic through empowering communities and families on the frontlines.”
“This week, HHS updated its strategic framework for tackling the opioid crisis, which uses science as a foundation for our comprehensive strategy,” said Admiral Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health and Senior Advisor for Opioid Policy. “With these new funds, states, tribes, and communities across America will be able to advance our strategy and continue making progress against this crisis.”
“I would like to commend all of our staff who showed up on Saturday for our Community Outreach at our Burney Health Center. We were able to feed, clothe, assist with paperwork and provide Narcan kits. In all, 70 individuals received assistance that day in one manner or another. The staff worked diligently to make sure each and every person felt welcomed. We were assisted by Jill Phillips from Aegis, the Shasta County YMCA, Lynn Erickson from Circle of Friends and relatives of our employees. It was a great turnout and I’m thankful to be a part of such a great community.” –MVHC Behavioral Health Director, Raymond Mandel, Ph.D.
