Helios Care receives the Community Health Award

Utica – Excels BlueCross BlueShield was recently awarded a $2,000 HelioCare Community Health Award to support free grief counseling for the public.

This program offers online and in-person grief counseling through support groups, individual counseling, children’s camps, coping tools, and public offerings.

Since the outbreak, Helio Care social workers have been offering free grief counseling and support groups to all residents of Delaware and Otsego counties. The proposed funding will allow 12 more support groups to join the program this year, according to the grant announcement.

Kathryn Daly, development director at Helio Care, said: “Many traditional forms of mourning and commemoration of death, such as funerals and memorials, have been cut or stopped. This has left many residents suffering from unresolved grief leading to mental health problems and preventing them from moving on to the next stage of their lives.

“Support groups run by our specially trained grief counselors are especially effective because you know other people understand what you’re going through and you have mutual support,” added Daly.

Helio Care’s mission: “To make life easier for patients and their families by providing choice, dignity and compassionate care, as social workers to help with health and bereavement counseling and social decisions.”

Services are provided at the patient’s home for free or at a nominal cost.

Through a competitive application process, the Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Community Health Awards provide funding to initiate, expand and sustain health-promoting programs and services.

These investments promote health equity by extending access to health services or health-promoting programs to at-risk populations. The health plan’s corporate giving follows all applicable laws and regulations and does not support organizations that are in conflict with its corporate mission, goals, policies or products.

“Access to high-quality health care is at the core of our mission as a not-for-profit health plan,” said Eve Van de Waal, Excel BlueCross BlueShield Utica Regional President.

Van de Waal added: “We are proud to support Helio Care with the Community Health Fund to provide bereavement advice for those who have lost a loved one.

Excel BlueCross BlueShield is committed to supporting local organizations that improve community health.

The Company’s corporate giving follows all applicable laws and regulations and does not support organizations that are in conflict with its corporate mission, goals, policies or products.

The Excels BlueCross BlueShield Utica region includes Clinton, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego and St. Lawrence counties.