A representative of the Innovative Readiness Training program emphasized to the Henderson City Commission Tuesday that “anyone can come” to obtain the free medical, dental, vision and veterinary services that IRT will provide to residents June 15-25.
“We don’t check any IDs. We don’t turn away anyone,” said Air National Guard Capt. Chris Park, the deputy program manager of the IRT program. Park told the commission that both children and adults can take part.
Park said he hopes to serve as many as 1,500 people during June in Henderson, when the free clinic will be set up at South Middle School.
“The more people, the better,” Park said.
The IRT is a program in which military professionals can obtain training in their specific medical fields while residents of a community receive free healthcare.
Park said the program initially began in 1992, when military engineers were building structures but then tearing them down. Park said the program morphed after officials decided this model was a waste, and later began to provide services, eventually in medical and healthcare, so that both military personnel and a community benefited.
Bringing the program to Henderson was a collaboration between the city and the Green River Area Development District, said Henderson City Manager Buzzy Newman. Both worked to write the grant application, which was then submitted to the Delta Regional Authority, he said.
According to Arlicia Jordan, communications manager with the DRA, the application then went to the U.S. Department of Defense which then reviewed the application and made the final award.
Newman said the city began working on this grant about the spring of last year. News that the clinic would be coming to Henderson came to the city in the fall, Newman said. The city has been working with IRT officials to prepare for the clinic—and all that it will entail—since December, Newman said.
Part of that will be providing food and housing for the military and health care professionals who will work the clinic. Park said potentially 175 military staff will come to Henderson.
Newman said that Henderson officials are reaching out to neighboring counties so that their residents can also attend the clinic. He said the city wants to invite residents from Daviess, Webster, Union and possibly Vanderburgh counties to receive care at the clinic.
Newman said that the city will release more information as it becomes available, especially about the details of the clinic’s offerings.
For more information about Innovative Readiness Training, visit IRT.defense.gov.
