Health

The range of health and social service options is wide and widening around Knoxville.

The healthscape of Knoxville is healthy. Besides the seven full-service hospitals and their satellite clinics, there is a large, private mental health hospital, more than a dozen specialized clinics in the mental health and substance abuse field and more than 30 facilities especially for senior citizens, ranging from nursing homes, through assisted living centers to retirement communities. Hospice care and support organizations are also present.

Physicians and therapists in virtually every specialty are counted in the hundreds in greater Knoxville.

In addition, the area boasts a full range of social service organizations dedicated in full or in part to providing for the physical, medical and emotional needs of the young, the old and the in-between.

Included are information and advocacy groups for victims of such physical and emotional trauma as HIV/AIDS, limb loss, cancer in its many forms and domestic or other violence, including sex abuse.

From sickness, to hunger, to pain and suffering, to addictions and emotional disorders, there are specialists and specialty groups and organizations ready to help.

Even parenting skills are encouraged and taught in several places locally, and assistance through the grieving process is available.

The following pages afford you a partial directory to our health-promoting institutions, should you or your family or friends need them.

—Barry Henderson