Imagine being able to get medical care in the building where you live.
Sea Mar is bringing that idea to fruition with a mixed-use affordable housing complex at 7803 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., near the Vancouver Mall. The 70-unit building will offer dental and behavioral health care to residents and low-income neighbors. Construction has begun and is set for completion in August.
A one-bedroom apartment will rent for $916; two bedrooms, $1,099; and $1,250 for a three-bedroom apartment for tenants with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income.
Sea Mar, which is a provider of health services to Medicaid recipients, has similar buildings in Seattle that have worked well, said April Olsen, Sea Mar’s southern regional manager. This would be the first of its kind in Clark County, though.
“We want to be a health home,” Olsen said. “We want to treat the whole person, whether it’s behavioral health or medical. We want to have integrated care teams.”
The state House of Representatives has allotted $175,000 for the Vancouver clinic in its capital budget. The House and Senate will negotiate over the final budget in the remaining weeks.
“Community health centers see the House budget as a step in the right direction toward strengthening our behavioral health system at the primary care level,” Dekker Dirksen, director of public policy with Community Health Network of Washington, said in an emailed statement. “It recognizes the need for more behavioral health care capacity at community health centers with funding for new and expanded clinic space. We see this as a down payment on a multi-year investment in prevention, early intervention, and ongoing treatment for behavioral health care.”
The six-story complex will include a six-operatory dental clinic and should provide 10,500 appointments to 4,200 more patients every year, according to a capital request document. According to statistics from Sea Mar, about 78 percent of Sea Mar’s patients rely on Apple Health for dental coverage. Olsen said there are barriers to dental care for low-income populations in Clark County.
“There’s not enough resources for low-income patients in Clark County just as a whole,” Olsen said.
Sea Mar is also moving forward with an expansion of its Battle Ground clinic, which isn’t slated to receive any funding from the capital budget.
The Battle Ground clinic provides medical and behavioral health care, but not dental care. The expansion will add five dental operatories to the clinic, allowing Sea Mar to offer 3,800 appointments to 1,520 patients annually, according to the capital request.
“There’s such a need out here that opening these additional two resources in Clark County is going to be a tremendous help,” Olsen said.
Olsen said dental care is a lower priority for state funding, but should get more prominence as the “mouth is the entrance to the entire body.” Good dental care can prevent long-term health issues that effect more than just teeth, Olsen said.
Olsen explained that better dental care can lead to better quality of life, including better school attendance for kids and better work prospects for adults.
“Just the regular adult patient, if they’re not getting access to dental health, and their smile, it could affect them getting a job or social aspects,” Olsen said. “A bright smile does, unfortunately, do well.”
