Center offers help with mental health

A University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences call center is offering help with mental health issues or stress related to the pandemic, according to a news release.

The AR-Connect center is available 24 hours per day and offers virtual video visits from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Its phone number is (501) 526-3563 or (800) 482-9921.

The center opened in May and offers services at no out-of-pocket cost to patients. Nurses screen callers and connect them with therapists if needed, according to the release.

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It was created because of covid-19, and “has been very helpful for those dealing with the problems [the outbreak] has caused in their lives,” said Dr. G. Richard Smith, the UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute director.

Arkansas ranks 35th among 50 states for its level of access to mental health care, a report from the Mental Health America advocacy group says.

Illnesses prompt recalling onions

An onion supplier recalled red, yellow, white, and sweet yellow onions that may have been contaminated with salmonella Newport, the Food and Drug Administration announced last week.

California-based Thomson International recalled the onions that regulators think may be linked to a multistate salmonella outbreak.

The onions were sold in all 50 states, including at Kroger grocery stores. It’s unclear if those stores in Arkansas carried the contaminated onions.

So far, 396 illnesses and 59 hospitalizations have been reported in connection with the outbreak. That includes six cases in Missouri and five in Tennessee, federal data says. No one had died as of late last week.

Symptoms of salmonellosis, the disease caused by the salmonella Newport bacteria, include diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, and sometimes more serious symptoms.

People shouldn’t eat the recalled onions, the FDA says. Full information about the products is online at fda.gov. Low-cost medicine goal of program

A federal program allows Community Health Centers of Arkansas to offer low-cost prescriptions to some patients, the health group said in a July news release.

The 340B program helps the centers offer inexpensive drugs to some uninsured or underinsured patients.

In Arkansas last year, the group distributed 110,000 prescriptions at a discount under the program, according to the release. The average cost to eligible patients was about $12 per prescription.

A recent executive order called for community health centers to provide low-cost insulin and epinephrine to patients, but the Arkansas clinics have already been doing that, its officials said in the release.

The Natural State has 10 nonprofit community health organizations that largely treat people from underserved groups. They work out of 140 sites.

The centers serve more than 220,000 people each year.