JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) _ A southern Indiana behavioral health provider is working with a consultant to try to become designated as a federally qualified health center with a special emphasis on helping the homeless.

The Courier-Journal of Louisville reports (http://cjky.it/1lHpUXm) LifeSpring Health Systems is seeking to provide free mental-health and other health care to homeless people in 2015 as part of a plan to expand its community reach beyond behavioral health.

Southern Indiana homeless are usually sent to Family Health Center-Phoenix in Louisville, Kentucky. LifeSpring is seeking to have various medical providers work together to provide primary care, pain management and other health services for the homeless.

LifeSpring's vice president of development and grants, Beth Keeney, says the provider already has received city approval to retrofit some of the existing space for medical offices.