DANVILLE – Beginning in September, a local health care office plans to offer clinicis for the treatment of sexually transmitted disease clinics, and family-planning services.

Dawn Kime with American Family Healthcare at 715 W. Fairchild St., Danville, said the family practice office, which has been open for several months, recently made the decision to offer the services, which had to be dropped by the Vermilion County Health Department because of financial constraints.

American Family Healthcare is a private practice medical office owned by Julie Holycross, a physician assistant. Dr. David Barnes oversees the practice.

Kime said that beginning Sept. 7, the office will pick up family-planning services and sexually transmitted disease clinics.

Aunt Martha's Vermilion Area Community Health Center at 614 N. Gilbert St. has also arranged with state and federal officials to offer family planning services to the community and has also picked up the health department's Healthy Moms/Healthy Kids program.

The United Way of Danville, Center for Children's Services and the CRIS Healthy-Aging Center, all in Danville, are also picking up various services and programs dropped by the department.

Tom Green, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which oversees several of the programs that the health department cut, said United Way of Danville stepped up to continue the All Our Kids Early Childhood Network without a grant from the Department of Human Services.

The local United Way office will incorporate that program into the Success by 6 model of the United Way of Danville, according to Green. All Our Kids is intended to coordinate various local support services for families who have and are expecting children.

And, Green said, the Center for Children's Services has assumed Healthy Families Illinois, a child-abuse prevention program, and Teen Parent Services.

Family-planning services, which American Family Healthcare and Aunt Martha's will offer, provide women with medical exams, pregnancy testing, contraceptive supplies and educational services, and links pregnant women to prenatal care and links infants and children to appropriate medical care.

The health department served about 3,000 clients a year through family planning, about 2,000 through its STD clinics, and Healthy Moms/Healthy Kids served about 1,200 low-income families a year and was involved with the births of more than 600 babies annually.

Healthy Moms/Healthy Kids case managers help clients select a doctor, make and keep appointments, arrange for transportation, make connections with appropriate social service agencies and make home visits to assess the family environment and provide follow-up care, according to the health department's most recent annual report.

In September, American Family Healthcare will begin offering walk-in clinics from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and will offer the services on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays by appointment only.

The office accepts all types of insurance, Kime said, including public aid, but if clients have no insurance, the office will charge $25 per office visit.

"We have to charge a little something. We are giving up a whole Tuesday for the clinics," said Kime, who added that the state is not paying the office to provide the services although the state is providing lab services for free.

"This is something we feel is definitely a need for this area, so that's why there's such a low office-visit charge and we will take any insurance," she said.

Kime said the health department and the state have been working with their office and staff to get them prepared to offer the services.

The health department is "still getting calls about what to do or where to go, and they are sending everyone our way," she said.

Kime said they know the health department served a lot of people in its STD clinics and with family planning services, but American Family Healthcare is preparing for that. She said the facility is spacious and is undergoing renovations on its lower level to match the already-renovated upper floor.

Kime said currently the office has five employees, and the expectation is that staff will be added in the future as these programs get started. She said they anticipate adding a night clinic in the future, so the office definitely will have to add more staff.