Clinic Wants To Reach Expectant Mothers With Mobile Care Unit
Clinic Wants To Reach Expectant Mothers With Mobile Care Unit
By Tia Carol Jones
Dr. Twin Green wants to close the maternal health gap on the South side of Chicago and South Suburbs, much like she set out to do with providing services for the youth, when she opened The Link & Option Center in South Holland in 1994.
Green opened the Link & Option Center when she sought counseling for her son and herself as a result of a separation. It was not a great experience and she knew something needed to be done. She wanted to be a resource and a blessing to other mothers and parents, so she opened the Link and Option Center.
Thirty years later, Green and the Link & Option Center, are looking to open a mobile maternal health unit to meet the needs of expectant mothers on the South side and South Suburbs. In addition to youth services, the Link & Option Center provides family therapy, mental health services and substance abuse services. Green said the children who received the youth services would talk about the ways their families were struggling, so she decided to expand to offer services that would help the entire family, as well as the community. This includes working with expectant mothers.
Green decided that the clinic needed to do more in working with expectant mothers because she noticed that mothers in the community weren’t engaging in care because of access to care, which was impeding them from getting proper prenatal care. She said issues like having transportation to receive care, trusting a care provider or not having enough information about when and where to receive care are just some of the reasons why expectant mothers weren’t receiving proper prenatal care. Green saw maternal health mobile units in other states and knew nothing like that existed in the state of Illinois.
In October 2024, the Link & Option Center became the first certified community behavioral health clinic in Illinois designated for the South Suburbs. With this designation, the clinic was able to expand its client population to include prenatal and postpartum care for women. Green believes that the mobile maternal health clinic would enable expectant mothers to receive care earlier, which would result in healthier births, and change the way maternal health care is done.
“This mobile unit will bridge that gap to Black maternal health and create a convenient approach to accessing care and turning it from a high effort visit from a brick-and-mortar model to a low effort visit,” she said. She added that healthcare providers have to go where the people are if they want to reach them, which is what the mobile unit will do by going to the places that expectant mothers frequent.
Green estimates it will cost $700,000 for the maternal health mobile unit. She said her goal is to save lives and that the early interventions that would happen because of expectant mothers having access to the maternal health mobile unit justify the cost.
The Link & Option Center is located at 900 E. 162nd St. in South Holland, Ill. For more information, visit www.link-option.com
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