Three Nevada County agencies working together are the beneficiaries of a grant to expand services. Western Sierra Medical Center, Community Recovery Resources, and FREED Independent Living Center will use the 85,000 dollars to provide mental health services and chemical dependency care to area residents with disabilities.

Click here to listen to Scott McFarland

Western Sierra Medical Center CEO, Scott McFarland, says the grant will help leverage existing resources to address the needs of disabled community.

Click here to listen to Scott McFarland

McFarland says at this point the money is primarily for planning potential client identification.

Click here to listen to Scott McFarland

A challenge the three organizations face is how to improve services to reach 13,000 potential clients.

Click here to listen to Scott McFarland

Though in the early stages, the work has already begun with meetings taking place with all of the involved stakeholders. McFarland hopes that the effort eventually expands to other potential partner agencies.

Click here to listen to Scott McFarland

With planning and design taking pace now, Western Sierra Media Center, CoRR, and FREED hope to begin support sometime in 2015.