The not-for-profit North East Community Action Corporation (NECAC) now offers family planning services in Monroe County.  NECAC has joined forces with the Monroe County Heath Department to offer the program.
 NECAC Nurse Practitioner Claudia Timbrook will be seeing patients for family planning services monthly at the health department located at 310 Market St. in Paris. 
 Timbrook graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree from Culver-Stockton Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing in Canton and Quincy, IL and from the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing in Columbia with a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree.
 Timbrook provides gynecologic exams, birth control services and education, cancer screenings, Pap smears and breast exams, pregnancy testing, counseling and referrals, prenatal education, urinary tract diagnosis and treatment, HIV testing, counseling and referrals, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, information on vasectomy and tubal ligation and hypertension screenings.
 The goal of the program is to reduce unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.  The cost to clients is based on a sliding scale and the ability to pay.
 In 2007, NECAC began offering a free vaccine that can help prevent cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer in women under the age of 45.  The HPV or human papillomavirus vaccine is available for females ages nine to 26 who are uninsured; do not qualify for the federally funded Vaccines for Children program, or who have insurance that does not cover the vaccine.
 For more information concerning family planning or to make an appointment, call the Monroe County Health Department at 660-327-4259.
 
NECAC is a 12-county area not-for-profit social service, community health and public housing Community Action Agency that serves the low-income, elderly, youth, handicapped and disadvantaged. The agency’s Central Administration Offices are located in Bowling Green, with NECAC County Service Centers operated in each county.