Access to Care
Hope Lodge
MHM Announces $11M Gift to American Cancer Society to Bring First Hope Lodge Community to South Texas
The facility will improve cancer patient’s access to care when traveling to San Antonio
San Antonio, TX (March 29, 2023) – Today, Methodist Healthcare Ministries announced a gift of up to $11,000,000 to the American Cancer Society (ACS) to support its efforts to bring its first Hope Lodge facility to South Texas. The facility will be named the American Cancer Society Methodist Healthcare Ministries Hope Lodge and will be located in San Antonio, TX. The Hope Lodge community will provide free, temporary lodging for people facing cancer and their caregivers when seeking treatment at one of South Texas’s premier medical centers. The gift from Methodist Healthcare Ministries was announced at a special event planned alongside ACS to kick off the capital campaign that will secure the funds necessary to complete the project.
Conveniently located near cancer treatment centers in the South Texas Medical Center on Floyd Curl Drive, the facility will offer 40 private guest suites each with a private bath and all the comforts of home at no cost to the cancer patient and their caregiver. In addition, the facility will feature common living areas, dining rooms, laundry facilities, a library, recreation room and outdoor garden. Free transportation to and from local cancer treatment centers will also be included.
Si Texas (IBH)
Mental illness and chronic illness are frequent companions, but the current systems of care in the U.S. don’t treat mental and physical illness together. Integrated Behavioral Health is an emerging model that could change this gap in care. Methodist Healthcare Ministries wanted to know if IBH would be effective in clinics serving low-income, uninsured patients in primarily Hispanic communities in South Texas, and created a project and a unique funding structure to find out.
Click here to learn about the history and impact of this federally-funded project.
The Southwest Texas Crisis Collaborative is Having a Positive
Impact on Our Community
The Southwest Texas Crisis Collaborative (STCC) is a unique and unprecedented partnership between local health systems, mental health care providers, public safety agencies and philanthropy that is improving the continuum of care for the most vulnerable residents – unfunded and underfunded patients experiencing mental illness, homelessness and/or chronic illness.
San Antonio is home to over 350,000 individuals in the safety net population – people who may not have insurance, live at, below or near the poverty level and are otherwise considered vulnerable. This is a population that often does not receive the care, or the quality of care that they need. San Antonio, like many other communities, had previously experienced the same bureaucratic and logistical obstacles to providing this population with the care they need. That is when community partners came together to form the STCC.
The Collaborative brought together local health systems, mental health care providers, public safety agencies, city and county government, nonprofits, and philanthropic partners to develop a vision and a plan for how to close the gaps in the continuum of care and provide this population with access to the care they urgently need.
Learn more about the Southwest Texas Crisis Collaborative.
