GAINESVILLE, Mo. (October 28, 2025) – Missouri Ozarks Community Health is pleased to welcome Lacy Green, a licensed master social worker, to our behavioral health team at Gainesville. “We’ve seen the need for behavioral health care really climb in our communities,” said Jennifer Heinlein, chief operations officer at Missouri Ozarks. “With the addition of Lacy to our staff, we hope that we can continue to meet that need.”
Green is from the Gainesville area and is excited to serve the community. She earned her master’s degree from Arkansas State University. She also has some training in the treatment of substance use disorders and will be able to use that knowledge to point patients toward the substance use disorder treatment clinic at Missouri Ozarks in Ava. “That’s another thing that I’m hoping to bring to the Gainesville office, is just a little bit of that type of knowledge,” said Green. “Not that that’s what I’m going to be focused on but just being able to recognize that and point people in the direction that they need.”
The addition of Green to the behavioral health team will allow Lacy Shields, a licensed master social worker, to transition to the Ava clinic and Ava school-based care. “It’s been a privilege to work in and serve the Gainesville area, and I am so excited that the area is receiving a local social worker to take over and provide care,” said Shields. “For me, this transition means working closer to home and expanding care to our Ava patients and Ava R-1 Schools because as they say, “Once a Bear, always a Bear!”
Green will provide care for patients at the Gainesville clinic Monday-Thursday, from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. To make an appointment with her, please call 417-679-2775.
Missouri Ozarks Community Health is a federally qualified health center established in 1996. Missouri Ozarks serves the counties of Douglas, Wright, Texas and Ozark. Various services are offered at clinics, including primary medical care, dental care, behavioral health care, prenatal care and pediatric care.
