Health Care For Those Who Can't Afford It

Dr Andrew Eads explains how early treatment of health conditions keeps costs down.

Even in 2016, even after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been in effect for four years, there are still people who are marginalized medically. The Phoenix area has been addressing this need through PHOENIX ALLIES FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH (PACH), primarily through their nonprofit, volunteer-run clinic.

Not only does this organization provide free health care services, it also combines holistic traditions with modern-day biomedicine. Services range from acupuncture to diet education, wellness primary care checks to filling prescriptions, from public advocacy to comprehensive casework.And it is all subsumed by the belief that their neighbors matter and deserve nothing less than the best.



PACH always seeks community input into the array of services it provides. Like any other health clinic, it strives to identify health care issues before they become so severe that a person needs hospitalization and is being treated for complications. The organization utilizes a sustainable model, while providing for the most community good, within an American health care system that is viewed as inadequate.

The clinic's volunteers include licensed healthcare professionals, as well as healthcare students under supervision by qualified healthcare professionals. Non-medical volunteers are given training in such areas as phlebotomy (blood drawing), medical assisting, and clinic management. Many of these trained volunteers even go on to further training in various health care professions and then return to this community able to provide these professional services.

PACH continues to develop its relationships with various sectors of the community, including schools, universities, various religious organizations, and community advocacy organizations. But without donations, community volunteers, and community involvement, this effort would be in vain, so they frequently promote those types of involvement that helps them continue to offer the very best to their surrounding community.

PACH has interpreters to help put those who speak languages other than English at ease.

Looking back into PACH's beginnings, the healthcare professional volunteers had often been involved in providing services during health fairs and assemblies. That's when they had noticed the many individuals who weren't able to obtain needed healthcare, especially those with treatable chronic illnesses. Amy McMullen explained, "It became our mission to create a primary care clinic in a medically underserved area of Phoenix and provide free ongoing and preventative care to this populations." Obviously, since that beginning, PACH has come a long way and continues to provide services to the marginalized individuals, whom they serve.

An announcement for a new self-pay clinic allied with PACH.

Thanks for information from this article on PACH: http://azpach.org/uncategorized/pach-clinic-the-cause/; this article on Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/amy-mcmullen-phoenix-allies-for-community-health/; and the above link.

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