The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing has received a $349,099 grant from the St. David’s Foundation to support the school’s two wellness centers, which provide medical care for low-income, uninsured residents of Central Texas.
The school’s Family Wellness Center in East Austin and Children’s Wellness Center in Del Valle also are valuable clinical training programs for nursing graduate students to master skills in management of chronic disease, acute conditions and preventative medicine.
The School of Nursing has received more than $1.8 million from the St. David’s Foundation over the past 15 years.
“The generous support from the foundation helps us to provide high quality, comprehensive health care to thousands of Central Texans without private health insurance,” said Dr. Lisa Doggett, director of the School of Nursing Family Wellness Center. “By providing a medical home, our clinics help cut down on expensive, inefficient emergency room visits and improve quality of life for patients and their families. We appreciate the St. David’s Foundation’s ongoing support of our clinics and for other outstanding programs throughout our community.”
The foundation recently announced more than $2 million in health care education grants. It also provides funding each year through grants in the areas of “Healthy Aging, Healthy Futures, Healthy Living, Healthy Minds, Healthy People and Healthy Smiles.”
“The foundation allows the Children’s Wellness Center to offer our patients and the community a variety of services that are not available at most primary-care facilities,” said Mary Moran, director of the center. “We have on-site social work services, walk-in immunization clinics, health education classes, community health outreach and other services that would not be possible without St. David’s generosity.”