Volunteers fill a growing, essential need

By S. Renee Mitchell

The Oregonian, Wednesday, August 15, 2007

When 41-year-old James Jacobs lost his job and health insurance and needed heart medication, his life was on the line.

He called his legislators who told him to call someone else. He says the folks at the Oregon Health Plan told him that he didn’t qualify because he wasn’t pregnant, over age 65 or under age 21. The various medical clinics wanted some form of payment.

Finally, someone told Jacobs about the North by Northeast Community Health Clinic, which provides free medical care for adults. (www.nxneclinic.org; 503-287-4932)

“It was like a load off my chest,” says the Northeast Portland resident, who had his first heart attack at age 34. “I didn’t have to run through hoops. They don’t lecture me. They’re real people. Without them, I might be dead right now.”

The clinic, which has gotten national attention, several local community service awards and was first written about in this column, celebrates its first anniversary Friday.

In a state with at least half a million uninsured adults, the clinic is a stable shoulder for the underserved underclass who earn too much to qualify for government-subsidized health insurance but so little they’re barely surviving.

More than 300, mostly from inner North and Northeast Portland, have sought care. Most are between jobs and/or housing; suffer from chronic health conditions; and have run out of medication to treat high blood pressure, diabetes or asthma.

“The people that we see tend to have a lot of transitions in their lives,” says medical director Jill Ginsberg, who co-founded the clinic with Pastor Mary Overstreet-Smith. “For a lot of people, life is hard, and coming to the doctor is not a priority. We’re trying to do whatever we can to help make it easier.”

The clinic’s goal, as identified on the brochures, is “supporting a healthy neighborhood.” So social-service referrals are a necessary part of doing business. One man, for example, actually spit out a few of his rotten teeth as he talked.

“Dental care,” Ginsberg says, “is just a huge, huge need.”

The project has survived only with financial and moral support from the region’s largest health conglomerates, the Coalition of Community Health Clinics and Fred Meyer, which filled the clinic’s more than 400 free prescriptions.

Non-medical folks have also been essential. Artist Annette Sabo designed the newsletters, Web site and marketing materials for free. Summer Lewis’ family and friends donated to the clinic instead of buying her birthday presents this year.

And Ginsberg’s domestic partner, Louise Clark, who also is one of the clinic’s volunteer doctors and a board member, created a quilt from leftover fabric scraps. The “Flying Geese” quilt, which is being raffled, can be seen through Aug. 30 at Bolt Fabrics, 2136 N.E. Alberta St.

Even though the clinic is open only for a few hours on Thursday nights, Ginsberg spends at least 40 hours a week on clinic business, in addition to her full-time job as a Kaiser Permanente physician. She writes the grants, interviews volunteers, updates the Web site and even weeds the front lawn.

“I added it up for a month ‘cause I wasn’t sure,” she says. “And I was like, ‘Oh, my God!’ “

This unsustainable pace is taking its toll on Ginsberg’s tired eyes and petite frame. But for right now, it’s enough for her to honor her Jewish teaching: “Although you do not have to finish the task, neither are you free to desist from it.”

Like Ginsberg, you take one problem at a time, one day at a time. And one community, working together, can help transform lives.

S. Renee Mitchell: 503-221-8142; rmitch@news.oregonian.com. Comment online: http://blog.oregonlivecom/reneemitchell

©2007 The Oregonian