In an effort to keep our patients and staff healthy, we are screening all patients before you enter a Healthy Connections clinic. A staff member will meet you at the door to take your temperature and ask you some screening questions related to COVID-ID infection. If a COVID-19 risk is identified, you will be directed to a designated area for further evaluation. Otherwise, you will proceed to check in with your visit as usual. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause. We will continue to post updates at www.healthy-connections.org/covid-19. #Coronavirus #Covid19
Join Healthy Connections Pediatrics Clinic at the Garland County Library for Pediatrics 101 at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 1.
Jeremy Porter, MD, and Nicole Meggers, LCSW, will present information related to the Garland County Library’s most requested topic: Pediatrics Behavioral Health. Porter and Meggers will talk about behavioral health issues for children that adults may not have thought to be so common. Typically, parents and caregivers don’t talk to pediatricians about behavioral health issues until the children are having problems with performance at school our trouble with relationships, peers, or authority. Or the parents are at the “end of their rope” and looking for answers.
Porter will explain issues, symptoms, and signals to some common and uncommon behavioral problems. He will offer solutions and information every caregiver will benefit from. Porter said, “We are all people, but somehow children’s emotional difficulties can be unexpected by adults.” Porter is also comfortable speaking Spanish for parents and children whose primary language is not English.
Meggers, who is a licensed clinical social worker and children’s psychotherapist, will then have a Q&A to answer any questions you may have.
In order to attend, you have to reserve your spot. Please visit this link to sign up.
More exam rooms, state-of-the-art patient experience, convenient location, and Malvern students still get priority scheduling
Dear Healthy Connections Patient:
In 2016, Healthy Connections opened the Malvern clinic to great success at the Malvern School District Wellness Center. It has been our pleasure to serve as your healthcare provider since then. We appreciate and value your trust, and hope you will consider joining us in our new venture.
In order to ensure we continue to provide the best service to you, we are moving to a new location at 900 Martin Luther King Boulevard in Malvern. This location in Teeter Plaza will allow us to better serve the community with more exam rooms and a more patient-friendly, state-of-the-art environment.
Healthy Connections will continue to provide the same primary care/family medical, pediatrics, and mental and behavioral health therapy you have come to expect from us. We do not anticipate your care team changing with our physicians, advanced nurse practitioners, and therapists. The clinic located at the College of the Ouachitas’ Health Center in Malvern will also remain open and available to see patients.
We were recently honored when Healthy Connections and the Malvern School District were presented with the Whole Child Award by the Arkansas School-Based Health Center initiative. This award is presented to school-based health centers that do a “great job assessing and serving the health, social, personal and emotional needs of students.”
We will continue to be available to care for Malvern School District students, giving them priority scheduling during school hours.
The Healthy Connections Community Health Network will continue to accept Medicaid, including ARKids First, Medicare, and most forms of health insurance. Additionally, we will continue to offer our sliding fee scale for patients without insurance. This sliding fee scale allows many to receive treatment who otherwise would not have been able to afford it.
For now, nothing will change. We will continue to provide high quality medical and behavioral health care at the Malvern School District Wellness Center at 1517 South Main St. At some point in December, we will finalize our moving date.
We encourage you to visit www.healthy-connections.org/malvern for more information. We’ll continue to provide updates there as we make arrangements for our grand opening.
Thank you for choosing Healthy Connections.
Tony Calandro
Chief Executive Officer
Healthy Connections, Inc.
Healthy Connections, Inc., continues its Behavioral Health program expansion with the addition of Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) Nicole Meggers.
Meggers, who specializes in mental health therapy with children, will work out of the Hot Springs Central Avenue Clinic, home to Healthy Connections Pediatrics Clinic. The address is 3604 Central Avenue. Call (888) 710-8220 to schedule an appointment.
The LCSW is part of the Behavioral Health team, working with clients in order to help deal with issues involving mental and emotional health. Meggers’ specialty is working with children and those young adults 25 and under.
“I love working with kids. I’ve always worked with children. Even before graduate school, my jobs were always centered around kids,” Meggers said. “That’s where my passion is.”
Meggers graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Social Work in 2010 with her master’s degree. After becoming a LCSW in 2014, she began work at Living Hope in Hot Springs. The Hot Springs native said she excited to begin her new journey with Healthy Connections.
“I think it’s going to be a great, new adventure,” she said. “I’d love to be a part of helping to build the pediatrics program.”
Healthy Connections currently operates nine clinics throughout West Central Arkansas. This includes two clinics in Hot Springs at 3604 Central Ave., and 102 Chippewa Court. At Central Ave., Healthy Connections has a family medical clinic, pediatrics, cardiology podiatry and behavioral health. Other services offered include BioTE Hormone Replacement Therapy, Botox and Joint Injections.
The pediatrics clinic features Jeremy Porter, MD, and Melanie Newman, APRN. They work in the kid-friendly clinic to take care of children of all ages. Meggers will serve as the therapist for children.
“I just feel like the children need that source of stability because they have no control over their environment and surroundings. It’s important to have somebody who can help them navigate through their situation.”
“As a child, I grew up in a family full of addiction. I was one of the only ones who did not choose to go down that path. My past experience is what led me to want to work with kids.”
Meggers is able to see both established Healthy Connections patients and can take referrals from other healthcare providers.
Healthy Connections’ Behavioral Health program features Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) in Hot Springs, Malvern, Arkadelphia, and Mount Ida, who diagnose and treat mental, emotional and behavioral health issues.
Learn more about Healthy Connections’ Behavioral Health program at www.healthy-connections.org/bh. And learn more about the Pediatrics program at www.healthy-connections.org/pediatrics.
Healthy Connections was recently featured in the Hot Springs Medical Guide published by Life and Home magazine.
Click here or on the article to enlarge for viewing.
Click here to see the entire Medical Guide.
