Thrive Allen County’s transportation program is changing lives.
“To me it’s been a godsend,” said Iolan Loren Mitchell, in reference to the local initiative.
The 83-year-old said his daughter had been giving him rides to his dialysis treatments in Chanute, but her busy schedule often makes that impossible.
Fortunately for Mitchell, while attending dialysis one day, an employee there told him about Thrive’s free, non-emergency transportation program, which is currently being piloted.
In no time, he was getting a lift to Chanute pro bono, sometimes multiple days per week.
“I was driving myself,” Mitchell said, “but after I get done with treatment, a lot of the time, I’m weak and I’ll fall or something.”
“I fell down there [in Chanute] several times, one time, behind my car.”
Such incidents, however, are now a thing of the past, and Mitchell can get back to Iola from Chanute worry-free following treatment.
Along with stories like Mitchell’s, data collected by Thrive reveals many types of transportation destinations for residents since September.
On the health side, folks are being transported to: vaccine clinics, the hospital, psychological services, the pharmacy and dentist, hearing and obstetrics specialists, and much more.
Greta Ingle, care coordinator at Thrive, said that “in the last couple weeks, I took one guy to Wichita, to the spine hospital, for his check-up, and I took a group to Ottawa for the neurologist, and I took one to CHC.”
Many residents have also been driven to job interviews, the courthouse and domestic violence shelter, disability and childrens’ services, as well as grocery stores and meat markets.
Care coordinator Rhonda Culp added, “I took a lady to Chanute for her OB appointment, because KanCare didn’t have any drivers. We’re taking a lady to Parsons to the orthodontist [later today], and I’ve also taken a gentleman to Joplin for an appointment.”
The list goes on and on.
To learn more about Thrive’s pilot transportation program and the need for such programs locally, this Register reporter spoke with Lisse Regehr, CEO of Thrive Allen County.
“Since October of this past year, Thrive has provided 435 rides for our community members, both in-county and out-of-county,” she said.
“These are not just rides anywhere. They’re rides to the grocery store, rides to the doctor’s office, to speciality appointments and more.”
Regehr also explained how the transportation program grew out of a grant for safety-net services, and involved significant research by staff, especially deputy director, Jessica Thompson.
According to Thompson herself, census data shows that “20% of our community is without reliable transportation.”
It’s no surprise, then, that according to Regehr, “there’s a huge need” for programs.
“We’re 505 square miles in Allen County,” she said. “It’s not like you can hop on a bike and get from Elsmore to Iola when you need to get to the hospital.”
And when it came to developing the initiative, “it didn’t matter who we were talking to,” Regher noted. “They all had stories about their clients,” for example, physicians talking about patients being unable to attend visits.
“We had a woman who couldn’t get to the grocery store for three weeks,” Regher added, and she likewise pointed out how quite a few local folks don’t own vehicles.
Hence “these are folks, if we’re not able to provide this, they don’t get to these appointments to get the services that they need.”
In response to the claim that it’s not the government’s (or the county’s) job to assist with something like transportation (say, by making modest grant matches), Regher had the following to say:
“How wonderful if everyone had friends and family … to be able to take them wherever they needed to go,” she said. “But that is not the reality of our community.”
“Moreover, Southeast Kansas as a whole is poorer than any other region in the state,” Regher emphasized, and therefore many cannot afford to pay even very small fees.
“We want to make sure that people who are part of our community know that they are valued, that, as a county, we want to promote their health and safety,” said Regehr.
“… And what’s best for them is ultimately best for the community.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
