Home
/
News & Publications
/
Michigan Catholic News
/
2009
/
In dire economic crisis, Cabrini clinic saves lives
In dire economic crisis, Cabrini clinic saves lives
by Jared Field of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 23, 2009
Jared Field | The Michigan Catholic
Luke McCoy, a senior nursing student at the University of Detroit Mercy, administers a seasonal flu vaccine at the Cabrini Clinic in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood. He is one of more than 100 volunteers at one of the oldest free clinics in the United States. |
Detroit - It's Thursday afternoon and the miniature lobby at St. Frances Cabrini Clinic of Most Holy Trinity Church in Corktown, Detroit's oldest neighborhood, is bursting at the seams - no seat is unaccounted for.
Sr. Mary Ellen Howard, RSM, the clinic's executive director and her staff are preparing to administer seasonal flu vaccines at the clinic, one of the oldest free clinics in the United States. It's five minutes into the two-hour window for vaccinations and there are already 35 people, mostly older adults, on the waiting list.
People such as Breck Stevenson, of Detroit, who has been out of work for nearly two years after working 33 years in the manufacturing industry. Two months ago, at the age of 51, Stevenson, a diabetic, was diagnosed with coronary artery disease. Last month he had two stents put in his heart.
For Stevenson, the service Cabrini provides has been indispensable.
"(Cabrini Clinic) has been a godsend to me," said Stevenson, the father of 10 children. "There's no way that I could possibly have been able to afford the medications that I'm on now. I'm able to come here and take care of those things I need to so I can continue to seek employment to take care of myself and my family."
LaTresa Blackmon, 40, of Detroit, also a diabetic, says her life depends on the free medical care she receives at the clinic.
Jared Field | The Michigan Catholic
Breck Stevenson, a father of 10 children, has been out of work for nearly two years and says he doesn’t know what he would do without the free services offered by Cabrini Clinic. |
"(Cabrini Clinic) is the reason I'm alive," said Blackmon, who lost her job as a human resources manager in Macomb County a year ago, despite holding two advanced degrees. "I couldn't buy the insulin or the test supplies," she said. "I'm so grateful for this place. I don't know what I'd do without it. You'd probably be writing a story about me in the obituary section. I need this to survive.
"If I won the lottery or something, I'd fund this place."
Healthcare: 'This is a moral issue'
St. Frances Cabrini Clinic, 1234 Porter St., Detroit, has been providing free and low-cost healthcare to poor families and the uninsured since 1950. During the last few years, Sr. Howard has witnessed the healthcare crisis in the United States firsthand, through the faces of those who are so desperate for help.
The St. Frances Cabrini Clinic serves the uninsured between the ages of 18-64. |
"This is a moral issue," she said. "The bishops have spoken out about it. It's criminal. People who are sick and poor cannot get access."
Some estimates put the number of uninsured in the United States at nearly 50 million, 200,000 of whom live in the city of Detroit.
"We take care of about 1,500," she said. "It's tough. The economy is bad. We're run totally on fund raising here. We keep the door open through writing grants and the donors who support us. ... Our support is drying up, but we're not going to close the doors on people who are sick."
Recently, Sr. Howard asked patients to fill out a survey that, among other things, asked a pretty simple question: What would you do if Cabrini Clinic wasn't here?
Almost half of the respondents said they would get no care.
One man inferred that he would end his life, writing in the caliber of a pistol.
"If we weren't here, he'd kill himself," she said. "That's how bad it is.
"People die because they don't have coverage. More people would die, that's what would happen."
According to its mission statement, Cabrini Clinic "provides a holistic approach toward meeting the primary health care needs of economically disadvantaged residents of southwest Detroit and beyond."
The clinic, which serves the uninsured between the ages of 18-64, currently has three on the payroll and has a transient staff of more than 100 volunteers.
|
