La Clinica serves Hispanic community's basic needs
10/3/2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn.
A UMNS Report
By Nancye Willis*
Health Care for Hispanics. Photo number W03029, Accompanies UMNS #478
No Long Caption Available for this Story
Health Care for Hispanics. Photo number W03028, Accompanies UMNS #478
No Long Caption Available for this Story
The patients Dr. David Moscowitz sees are often
undocumented, uninsured and poor. Many have no place else to go for
medical care.
But, thanks to La Clinica Latino Community Health
Center, founded by United Methodist minister William Chignoli in 1993,
the needs of St. Louis' Hispanic population are being met, despite
language and social barriers.
The clinic is in the basement of
the United Methodist Church of the New Community, an inner-city
congregation that Chignoli leads as pastor. Besides medical services, La
Clinica provides an array of social services, mental health care and an
after-school program.
Moscowitz is among the volunteer medical
workers who struggle with daily hurdles of shortages of pills and
supplies. Still, he keeps coming back, because he knows many patients
have no other options.
That was the case two years ago with Alfonso Vences, a Mexican immigrant.
"My husband was really sick. He had no insurance and he couldn't work," says his wife, Lisa Taylor.
She
brought him to La Clinica, where he received treatment at no charge.
While Taylor sat in the clinic's waiting room, she noticed an ad for an
available position, applied and got the job.
The staff, which is
95 percent volunteer, works wonders, she says. "We see people we really
can help, people with no insurance and no job. But sometimes we get
disheartened when we can't help as much as we want."
La Clinica,
an arm of Accion Social Communitaria (Hispanic/Latino Community Social
Action), provides the equivalent of more than $1 million in services -
medical and other - to 1,200 people a month. The time of volunteer
medical staff, translators, and donated medical equipment and supplies
from various sources contribute to the total.
Covenant
relationships with several United Methodist congregations, and a grant
from the denomination's Minority Group Self-Determination Fund, help
defray expenses. Bishop Ann Sherer, who leads the church's Missouri
Area, was instrumental in providing the building. Other religious
groups, including the United Church of Christ-related Deaconess
Foundation and the Jewish Fund for Human Needs, have provided donations
and grants.
La Clinica operates on the premise that the special
social needs of Hispanic people have not been met by traditional U.S.
model of social and health care delivery, addressing not only physical,
but also social, emotional and spiritual needs.
In doing an
evaluation with Washington University's School of Social Work, Chignoli
learned that 67 percent of the Latino residents in the area have some
form of clinical depression, resulting from the lack of identity that
they experience when they enter the United States - the loss of their
culture, separation from family and struggles with discrimination.
"Plus
they receive less money than the minimum wage because they are
undocumented," Chignoli says. "It's a new kind of slavery." The dream of
having a better life in America is not easy, he says.
La
Clinica's staff includes 22 physicians and 10 dentists, as well as
registered nurses, nurse practitioners, dental assistants, mental health
providers, social workers and educators. All medical staff is
voluntary, except for a clinical coordinator, required by law for
consistency. "Everybody is bilingual," Chignoli says.
From operating one day a week in the beginning, La Clinica is open until 10 p.m. Monday through Friday.
La
Clinica also provides services through the government's Women, Infants
and Children program, including the expertise of nutritionists for
pregnant women.
The after-school program, sponsored by the
Washington University School of Language, provides tutoring to children
ages 7 to 12. "We create a bridge between our tutors and the parents
because the parents do not speak English and they have no communication
with the teachers (at school)," he says. The program also provides
physical education, entertainment and food for the kids.
Chignoli
plans to move La Clinica into a rehabbed building near the church next
year, and he will turn the church basement into a day-care center -
filling another pressing need for working parents. Architects, lawyers,
contractors and others are donating their services to help La Clinica,
he says. "For me personally this is an example of the integration of the
community with the church."
Accion Social Communitaria
estimates St. Louis' growing Hispanic population at 40,000-50,000,
increasing by as many as three families each week. Although its client
base is 75 percent-80 percent Hispanic, service to immigrants from
places like Bosnia and Asian countries like Vietnam and Laos is
increasing.
"We like to integrate the communities," Chignoli
says, "… (to) demonstrate our good will and good intention for working
together."
La Clinica is an Advance special of the United
Methodist Church, which means 100 percent of the donations designated
for it go straight to the project. Checks can be made out to the local
church and dropped in the collection plate, or made out to "Advance
GCFA" and sent to P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, N.Y. 10087-9068.
Credit-card donors can call (888) 252-6174. Designate the check for
Advance No. 561476 or 561475.
More information on La Clinica and Accion Social Communitaria is available at www.accionsocialcomunitaria.org online.
# # #
*Willis
is editor for the Public Information Team at United Methodist
Communications in Nashville, Tenn. Tim Tanton with United Methodist News
Service contributed to this report.