Blessing Health System

Making Health Education Personal

Health education has a new twist for students in several west central Illinois school districts. Now, it’s personal.

A $300,000 grant from the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF), a coalition of community agencies and organizations—including Blessing Health System in Quincy—created the “Wellness Express.”

The product of three years of work, the Wellness Express arrived in Quincy in June 2017 before hitting the road to provide medical, behavioral and oral health services to students in need in the Liberty, Payson, Mendon, Camp Point and Mount Sterling school districts during the school year. In Adams County, where Quincy is located, up to half of public school students are considered low-income.

Blessing Health System joined with the five other organizations to put the Wellness Express into drive, with Blessing providing funding and the helping staff the mobile clinic when needed.

“Blessing Health System believes strongly in the power of partnership,” said Maureen Kahn, RN, MHA, MSN, President/Chief Executive Officer, Blessing Health System/Blessing Hospital. “No one organization can provide all that is needed to improve the health of our community. But through partnership, communities thrive."