Cause

Community Health & Wellness

Make an Impact

Ensure a healthier community for everyone

Healthy neighbors make the Queen City better

You can help every person get community health services and wellness programs to live a healthy and rewarding life.

Wellness and good health require more than going to the doctor for checkups. In addition to needing a full complement of health care services, people need a safe place to live, education, job opportunities, public safety and recreational and cultural opportunities. When you give to the Mercy Health Foundation for community health and wellness programs, you improve people's health and quality of life.

Because the whole person is important, our services extend well beyond the walls of our Mercy Health facilities, reaching into neighborhoods across the Cincinnati area. Thanks to ongoing support from donors, Mercy Health's Community Health team can provide valuable preventive care, health education and wellness programs out in the community. With your help, people can get the care and support they need, when and where it's most convenient for them. And often free of charge, to further help those without insurance or the ability to pay.

You can even designate your donation to a specific program, knowing you'll help people be the best and healthiest version of themselves.

Community Health 

Mercy Health has an entire Community Health team focused on health equity and getting people connected with the programs, services and funding to break down the barriers that prevent them from seeking health care. Because of donations, our Community Health programs can help connect people with resources for housing and renovations, furniture, eviction prevention, food and fresh produce. 

Community Health programs such as Perinatal Outreach and Mercy Serves help address specific challenges like infant mortality and drug and alcohol addiction.

Give Good Health For All

All people deserve the opportunity for a healthy life

Perinatal Outreach Program

As part of Mercy Health's Community Health initiatives, donations support perinatal outreach services that help ensure women and babies are healthy before, during and after birth. Cincinnati has one of the nation's highest infant mortality rates, especially among African Americans, with approximately 100 babies dying before their first birthday each year. And Black women are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth complications.

Mercy Health depends on donors like you to help women get the care they need for their own health and their baby's health. These are just a few services made possible by donations:

  • Help for housing, food and employment opportunities 
  • Access to health insurance and healthcare services (obstetrician, mental health, dental, vision, primary care and pediatrician)
  • Help finding transportation to medical appointments
  • Diapers, wipes, pack ‘n plays and other baby care items
  • Advice and support for healthy eating, tobacco cessation, breastfeeding, safe sleep practices, pregnancy spacing and more

Give for Healthy Babies

Ensure care and support that saves lives of moms and babies

Mercy Serves

With funding from donations, the Mercy Serves program recruits a number of AmeriCorps volunteers for 11-month terms of service working in Mercy Health facilities. These passionate individuals gain valuable professional and life experience through their work helping patients and the community in a number of ways such as:

  • Screen and refer emergency department patients to substance use treatment, primary care doctors, food and housing assistance
  • Guide patients in discussions about Advance Care Planning and their health care preferences
  • Provide direct assistance to help residents of Bond Hill and Roselawn neighborhoods with rent, mortgage payments and utility bills

Lend a Hand

Support Mercy Serves volunteers helping patients in need

Health Partnership Program 

Thanks to donations, Mercy Health offers this program for people who are working but don't have medical insurance or can't afford the out-of-pocket costs for health care. Many physician offices across three counties in the Cincinnati area partner with us to treat program participants for a modest co-pay. Patients can even get their medications filled for a small cost. The Health Partnership Program connects people with their own primary care physician so they don't delay the care they need or depend on the Emergency Department as their primary source of health care.

The program is staffed by licensed social workers that help patients in need navigate the health care landscape to find the resources and care they need. By addressing the social determinants of health—basic needs like food and housing—people can begin to prioritize their health.

Stand Together for Those in Need 

Give affordable health care for the uninsured

School Based Health Centers 

Thanks to donor funding, Mercy Health has established partnerships and clinics across greater Cincinnati to bring health care services to communities with few medical resources. School Based Health Centers provide an affordable option for the whole family, in addition to students, in a location that is familiar, convenient and close to home.

Staffed by nurse practitioners, the clinics offer vaccinations, prescriptions, sick care, well-care visits and all the services of a primary care office. The staff even help address social determinants of health—like housing, hunger and food insecurity—that stand in the way of people getting the medical care they need to live healthier lives.

Healthy Kids, Bright Futures

Provide affordable health care for families, close to home

Outpatient Wellness Center at Mercy Health's West Hospital

Your support for the Outpatient Wellness Center gives uninsured and underinsured people an affordable option for primary care on the West Side of Cincinnati. The medical providers and staff at the Center provide patients with guidance and assistance to improve their health and avoid using the emergency department as a costly source for primary health care.

Help the Uninsured

Give affordable health care for West Side neighbors

Mobile Mammography

Women are busy. Finding the time, lack of insurance or transportation can prevent them from getting an annual mammogram. Donations to the Mercy Health Foundation keep two mobile mammography coaches on the road and in neighborhoods across the Tri-State area, where people can conveniently walk in or make an appointment.

The latest 3D mammogram technology helps detect cancer in its earliest stages, when most treatable. Patients can receive results within 45 minutes and navigation services help patients schedule follow-up testing if needed. And stipends are available for uninsured patients or those who can't afford the screening.

Support Early Detection

Mobile mammography gives people a fighting chance against breast cancer

Related Stories