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Hundreds Celebrate Community Health Center

Credit Photo by Casey Marsh/KBBI
[Left to right] Lavina Hess, Laurel Hilts, and Sandy Cunningham bring awareness to the amount of sugar in bottled and canned drinks at the event.

Seldovia Village Tribe’s SVT Health and Wellness celebrated National Community Health Center Week with a free community barbeque in their parking lot on Friday.

“We just want to help to make this community aware of the fact that we’re here and that we are open for everyone,” said Laurel Hilts, the marketing and public relations director for Seldovia Village Tribe.

SVT Health and Wellness has offices in Anchor Point, Homer, and Seldovia. The community health center offers holistic and preventative care and has family nurse practitioners, an acupuncturist and a massage therapist on staff, among other providers. They also offer behavioral health services with a licensed family therapist.

Hilts says that although SVT Health and Wellness is run by a tribe, you do not have to be Alaska Native or American Indian to get services there and that they have a range of payment oprtions.

“We have a sliding scale for if people have difficulty making payment. And we even have the ability to help people out if they really are at a point where they cannot pay,” said Hilts.

Hilts adds that SVT Health and Wellness can bill Medicaid, Medicare, the Veterans Administration, and the Indian Health Service, as well as private insurance companies. They also have private payment options.

The event featured an egg toss, a slime salmon toss, face painting and a bouncy castle. They also offered free blood pressure screening. Hilts says about 250 people attended community barbeque at which they served more than 550 hamburgers and hotdogs.

Homer’s local SVT Center is located at 880 East End Road, and is open at various times from Monday-Friday. You can find more information on the Health Centers at svthw.org.