IMPACT
in the Southern Hills
Your Generosity in Action
Thanks to your support, United Way of the Black Hills is proud to share real stories — told in the words of our partners — that show how your generosity is making a difference every day.
Prairie Hills Transit
Hot Springs is a great retirement community and has some great housing, assisted living and nursing home facilities as well as the Hot Springs Veterans Affairs Hospital.
Many spouses are separated from their mate of many years due to disabilities or other conditions that require more care. Because many of these spouses no longer drive, they rely on Prairie Hills Transit to take them to visit their mate who is in a 24-hour care facility. While being apart after many years of marriage is difficult it makes it more tolerable because they can still visit as often as they like.
The twice-monthly trip from Hot Springs to Rapid City is a special outing for Ray who goes to visit his wife at a retirement village in Rapid City. 75-year-old Ray feels especially good about these trips because he “doesn’t put anyone out” and is able to visit with his wife for several hours each trip. “That’s just priceless for us” he says. We sure do look forward to those personal visits.
Another new trip type comes from the traveling nurses who use transportation services to get to/from their lodging to the healthcare facility. Fall River Health clinic has purchased trip vouchers to help assist any patients who need to get into the clinic but don’t have the $2.00 fare for the trip to/from. The vouchers are purchased in advance and provide information on them that the trip was purchased by Fall River Health.
Continuum of care is priceless and prevention of follow-up care is especially valuable as it helps to eliminate readmission to the hospital. Fall River County qualifies for a “highly rural” transportation grant administered by Prairie Hills Transit and with trips performed by Prairie Hills Transit.
Many of the veterans receiving care at the Hot Springs VA still need to be seen at the Rapid City center or Sturgis VA. This has really been important to the Fall River County and Custer County veterans and continues to improve the results in successful healthcare outcomes for those individuals.
Thanks to generous donors like you, United Way of the Black Hills is able to make stories like this possible!