Portage Health Foundation and Dial Help Combine to Expand Services

After discussing possibilities for over 4 years, Portage Health Foundation (PHF) finalized the legal acquisition of Dial Help. Executive Director of Dial Help, Rebecca Crane, hopes to help the PHF take more action and offer more services. 

“I think about 4 or 5 years ago, Kevin [Store] and I started to talk about you know, what could be if we joined forces and just provide more services because at that point, they were not a service arm, they, of course, were funders. So five years later here we are… In the near future, we’re just starting to work through all the logistics of joining so that’s really where we’re at at the moment. In probably 6 months to a year, we’re going to have our division heads [are] going to propose different service areas that are not being met right now, so I’d imagine in 5-10 years, we’re going to meet those service areas” – Rebecca Crane, Executive Director of Dial Help

Executive Director of Portage Health Foundation, Kevin Store, hopes to be able to combine Dial Help’s action-based services and PHF’s funding to create a seamless and productive company to provide mental health services through the area.

“Historically, we’ve talked about this probably for the last 4, 5 years. We’ve partnered with Dial Help from a funding perspective, looking at a number of their different programs and hoping we can provide some financial support for them… As the need from the community keeps being expressed in terms of additional, you know, health services, you know, behavioral health services, counseling services, prevention services, whatnot, Rebecca [Crane] and I have been talking more intentfully about how do we address those needs in our community while at the same time looking at operational efficieincies and how do we continue our partnership in a way that would make more sense to position us to meet those needs. So, over the last couple years we’ve been talking more formally about a partnership and it’s evolved into what’s come about as an aquisition of Dial Help into the Portage Health Foundation… The intention of that is to really look at the scope of services that are being offered to help stabilize. There are prevention victim services, and clinical services, lined [up], but look at ways in we can look to improve or enhance, or expand the services that are available to our community as a whole.” – Kevin Store, Executive Director PHF

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