Matthew 25 on Wednesday unveiled its new mobile sexual health unit, a vehicle that will allow the organization to go to a 10-county area to provide testing and services that people would normally have to drive hours to get, say officials with the organization.
“We can access people even if they’re scared or don’t have the means to make it to us,” said Courtney Woolfork, Matthew 25’s CEO.
The mobile unit is 40-feet long and was outfitted by Mission Mobile Medical, a group out of North Carolina. Within it, there are two exam rooms both with retractable walls and a sound machine to provide privacy, said Anna Ambs, the chief operating officer for Matthew 25.
In one of the exam rooms, patients can access telehealth, and the unit also offers ADA accessibility and has a phlebotomy station and restrooms.
The mobile sexual health unit was paid for with a $3 million Centers for Disease Control grant that is doled out at $600,000 annually over a 5-year period.
Ambs said the process to obtain the unit began in December 2023 when the organization began writing the grant for it. The mobile sexual health unit was delivered to Matthew 25 in April.
Ambs said the 10-county service area for the unit stretches from Henderson County to Barren County in southcentral Kentucky, which according to a previous Hendersonian article is a region that the CDC designated as one that needs the services provided by the unit.
Ambs said the mobile sexual health unit’s schedule of when it will be in particular counties will be shared on Matthew 25’s website and on the organization’s social media accounts. She said the inaugural appearance will be at the Walgreens in Owensboro on Fredericka Street on June 27, which is also National HIV Testing Day.
The focus of Matthew 25 employees who work on the mobile sexual health unit initially will be to conduct HIV and Hepatitis C testing, Ambs said. Later, Matthew 25 health care employees will begin to provide treatment at the mobile sexual health unit, she said.
