After more than 25 years, Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach Program (MEHOP) will change its name to Vibrance Health and welcome the public to Vibrance Health Pharmacy for the first time on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
The event will be commemorated in Bay City at an open house ribbon-cutting ceremony from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. at MEHOP’s ERC Building located at 101 Ave. F North.
An identical event will be held in Wharton from 4-5:30 p.m. at the Family Medicine Clinic. The Grand Opening of the Vibrance Health Pharmacy will be celebrated at the same time.
This change allows MEHOP to step into a new identity that is a better match for the future of the Community Health Center.
“We have been asked why we would change our name and my answer to that is – it just doesn’t fit anymore,” said CEO Celeste Harrison. Everyone knows the name MEHOP, but that is an acronym for Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach Program and, according to Harrison, the organization has outgrown its name in the following ways.
Matagorda: We now have thriving clinics in both Wharton and Matagorda Counties, and we are actively searching for the opportunity to expand to surrounding communities in need of a Federally Qualified Community Health Center.
Episcopal: We will always be grateful for and proud of our Episcopal roots.
‘The area churches and Episcopal Health Foundation are how we got our start, but the passage of time and the growth we have experienced has changed our primary funding entities.
Health: This is the one word that is still fully applicable, and we carry it with us to Vibrance Health.
Outreach Program: Outreach is still a vital part of our mission. Our entire team of Community Health Workers that go out into the surrounding communities to bring the information and services offered by MEHOP to many different community events and businesses can attest to this.
However, it is no longer the only way that we serve our communities. We no longer operate only as the “outreach program” from our very first days in a mobile unit when all MEHOP had to offer was medical exams and outreach.
It is time for a fresh new look and feel to the health center’s brand. With the new name comes a new logo, brand colors, website, social media presence, and hopefully a higher regard in the community. We want our patients and the community we serve to think of us as their local community health center.
“In fact, MEHOP is labeled by the Health Resources and Services Administration as a Patient-Centered Medical Home with badges for Access Enhancer, Health Disparities Reducer, and Health Center Quality Leader. “It is disheartening to hear that there are those who still think of MEHOP as a ‘free clinic’,” said Harrison.
“With that term, I think people automatically assume substandard care, a lack of funding for facilities and equipment, providers that are lacking in some way – the newest and best is not available to our patients, and a host of other bad connotations. But I can assure you, we are none of those things.”
Harrison explained that MEHOP has begun the journey and Vibrance Health will lead the way forward as the local health center offering the newest ideologies of medical treatment including a focus on the whole person. “Vibrance Health won’t be the place you come to just get medicine, it will be the place you come to gain a healthy and vibrant lifestyle,” said Harrison.
Patients may not understand, for instance, that mental health is connected to physical health; which is affected by financial stability; which stems from the ability to finish your education; which is dependent on access to local and sustainable fresh food sources; and so the cycles go on and on.
“We understand all of those interconnections. And you will see Vibrance Health starts to expand services in ways that helps those building blocks to health begin to fall into place for our patients,” Harrison said.
Vibrance Health has opened its own pharmacy that serves not just its patients but also the entire community. MEHOP created a community garden program that includes greenhouse production and hydroponics based in local schools.
