Midwest Energy is coordinating a total of $50,000 in donations to improve telehealth infrastructure for area mental health providers, enabling them to better meet clients’ mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Agencies receiving the grants include:
• $25,000 to High Plains Mental Health Center, Hays (serves 20 Midwest Energy counties), with funds to be used to purchase iPads for providers, protective cases and Ethernet adapters to enable remote video conference appointments.
• $12,500 to Compass Behavioral Health, Garden City (serves nine Midwest Energy counties), also for iPads, cases and Ethernet adaptors for remote video appointments.
• $12,500 to Center for Counseling and Consultation Service, Great Bend (serves four Midwest Energy counties), to purchase software allowing electronic prescriptions for clients reducing their need for office and pharmacy visits.
“We were able to make this donation by leveraging matching funds from our industry partners,” said Pat Parke, Midwest Energy’s CEO. The $50,000 total is made up of $15,000 from Midwest Energy’s Community Fund, matched by $10,000 from Denver-based CoBank, one of Midwest’s lenders, through its Sharing Success program.
The final $25,000 contribution comes from Xylem, a global water technology company headquartered in Rye Brook, N.Y., which also makes Midwest’s automated meters. Through their corporate social responsibility program, Watermark, Xylem coordinates a Partner Matching Contributions program in which they join together with partners such as Midwest Energy to support communities that have been impacted by COVID-19.
“Meeting the mental health needs of our clients these past six months have been a challenge,” said Walter Hill, executive director of High Plains Mental Health. “This grant will help our 65 providers to continue providing services, while reducing potential COVID-19 spread in our communities.”
Midwest Energy, headquartered in Hays, is an electric and natural gas cooperative, serving 92,000 customers in Central and Western Kansas.
