It was another great meeting at RCSE on Friday! Cindy announced that a few GRSP students need a ride to Alpharetta, GA this upcoming Friday, November 2 as well as a ride back to Savannah on Sunday, November 4. If you are able to help, please let Cindy know ASAP. Once all Rotary business items were discussed, Cindy introduced our speaker for the day - Laura Morgan, Executive Director of Medbank Foundation.
Medbank Foundation is a local nonprofit that acts as a liaison between patients in need of medicine with pharmaceutical companies patient assistance programs. Medbank serves five counties in this area and in order to be eligible for their assistance, a patient must have a medical home (a primary care doctor). Most patients who use this service are uninsured. However, they do help individuals who have insurance but have a high deductible or are in the "donut hole" of Medicare Part D. One in four working people can not afford their medications. The top five medicines that are sought after are asthma, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. Medbank has a staff of 6 and last year helped 1853 patients have access to over 9000 medicines for free with a cost savings of $11.1 million. Medbank is primarily funded through grant funding, the United Way, city of Savannah, and corporate sponsors.
Laura also spoke about ASIST which stands for Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training. One in five people have a mental health diagnosis and therefore, suicide prevention is something that must be talked about. The training curriculum is for ages 16 and up and provides tools to help you identify and respond to someone who is contemplating suicide. Laura encouraged everyone to look into this training program.