SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — A health coalition in Camden is getting millions of dollars to expand services as part of New Jersey's $50 billion budget just signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy.
Helping the homeless and others going through struggles with mental health and addiction is the mission of the Camden Coalition. The organization works with all sorts of health providers to help connect people with what they need.
“We are a coordinator of services, yes. We really specialize in care management,” said Kathleen Noonan, the coalition's president.
Noonan said the state is providing them with $7.5 million to reach more people and expand services beyond the city of Camden. "And not just with Camden County, but actually with neighboring counties," she clarified. "So Gloucester, Burlington, Salem, Cumberland."
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She said many of the people they work with are making unnecessary trips to the emergency room.
"After they leave the emergency room, reach out to them. Make sure they have a primary care provider and that the primary care provider has mental health available within their setting is really important. That’s one of the things we've been focusing on," she said.
Noonan says she gets a lot of personal satisfaction from this funding, knowing that the state has recognized and rewarded the coalition with more money to help more people, "to basically wrap a lot of services around them and help to stabilize them in the community."