FEATURES
State of Healthcare in
New Orleans
by Dr. Kevin Stephens
The Fight for Charity
by Anitra D. Brown
The Right Stuff
by Keli Fulton
Standing on Common Ground
by Matt Olson
Columns & Departments
Standing on Common Ground:
Born out of sheer need just days after Hurricane Katrina, Common Ground Health Clinic focuses
on the patient and anti-racist principles to deliver quality community health care.
In broken mirror above the door, a sign reads “Common Ground Health Clinic.” Nearly 40 patients a day visit this converted convenience store on an Algiers street about two blocks from the Mississippi River. Up a ramp and inside is a pristine waiting room with 25 chairs and along the short hallway is the social workers’ office, then four patient rooms and a work station for an herbalist in the back.
Anne Mulle, the clinic’s nurse practitioner, spoke from inside one of the patient rooms where flyers on the walls promoted reduced-cost eye exams, healthy eating and early breast cancer detection. She stressed the importance of integrated healthcare, relieving stress and understanding people in their environment. To this end, the clinic provides social work, acupuncture, live Spanish language interpretation and supports community organizing.
“People typically think of health as blood pressure, weight and laboratory results,” said Mulle (pronounced MOO-lay). “We believe their health includes the complete picture: What’s going on with their housing, with their kids and their schools? What’s their stress level? What’s going on with their work? Are they working multiple jobs or not able to get a job at all? How is their overall well-being impacted by their community and their environment?”
Antor Ndep, a public health doctoral student, is the clinic’s executive director. Ndep, who has lived in New Orleans since 1997, was at first hesitant about taking the post, but committed to visiting before passing judgment.
“What hooked me is that it was almost a manifestation of everything that I’ve thought about establishing in a community health center back home,” said Ndep, who was born in Nigeria. “Here are a group of very young people on both sides of the race line saying we want to talk about racism because we feel that racism is what is making communities poor and ill. That is something that you just do not find anywhere.”
In her two years as the clinic’s executive director, Ndep has overseen impressive growth. She formalized the organizational structure, revamped the clinic’s policies and procedures and embraced the clinic’s non-traditional programs based in community organizing.
“Community engagement for us comes in many different forms,” said Ndep, who emphasizes consideration of patients as peers worthy of dignity and honesty. “We talk; we make friends, look people in the eye and invite them to everything we do. It’s a way of providing healthcare that goes beyond sitting across from a provider and telling him what’s wrong; and that’s the beauty of it..”Recognized Achievement
Earlier this year, Common Ground Health Clinic received the highest level of recognition as a “Patient-Centered Medical Home” from the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA). The standards for the primary care applicants include the use of best-practices, the quality of medical records and following up with referrals. While 37 applicants from the Greater New Orleans area received recognition, only two practices earned the highest level. They are Common Ground Health Clinic and St. Thomas Community Health Center.
Both clinics are explicit about being community-integrated and anti-racist as part of providing long-term community health. To reach their goals, both organizations work with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, which often facilitates weekend “Undoing Racism” workshops. The People’s Institute has worked with St. Thomas since 1991; and in January 2006, the People’s Institute co-sponsored its first workshop since the storm with CGHC.
“They have incorporated anti-racism into their mission and vision,” said Dr. Kimberley Richards, CGHC board member and core trainer with the People’s Institute. “They recognize race in the health paradigm.
Richards adds that CGHC has achieved its objective by establishing partnerships, hiring residents and recognizing and utilizing resources in the community.
“I think it made all the difference in the world,” said R. Noah Morris, a clinic co-founder and CGHC board president. He added that the recognition should also convince the healthcare community that just because a clinic is free or low-cost to serve the community does not mean that its standard of care is not top rate.Putting the “community” in the community health clinic
Despite living only a few blocks away, Keith Jones’ first trip to the clinic came a full year after its opening.
“What I had was simple,” Jones said of his knee injury. “I got advice beyond what I really needed. ‘Did I live by myself? Could I make it?’ I’m getting all this attention with a sore knee? And nobody knew me from the man on the moon.”
Soon after, he accepted the clinic’s invitation to attend an “Undoing Racism” workshop, which included staff and patients together. “It was on point,” said Jones, who began volunteering and is now on the clinic’s staff as a community organizer. “They recruited from the class, and I’ve been there ever since.”
Several staff members were first patients, including Coleen Murphy. Murphy had lived in Algiers Point for four years when Katrina hit and hesitated to return. But with the news of a clinic, she found a reason to come back.
“I have never had health insurance and had been a patient of various sliding scale clinics my entire adult life. Never had I been treated with such care and kindness,” Murphy wrote in an e-mail. She started volunteering at the front desk. Now, as the clinic’s communications coordinator, she assists in outreach and edits all of CGHC’s publications, including the health resource guides.
On days when the clinic is open, Marie Romeo can spend up to five or six hours in conversations with patients about every thing from job searches to healthy eating to racism.
“It’s revolutionary to have health care and racism in the same context. That’s not done anywhere. I think that utilizing anti-racist principles in social work is imperative to be effective,” said Romeo, the clinic’s social worker. “The first crucial steps are to listen to a person’s experience and understand them. What would be characterized as pathology is a constant exposure to systemic oppression. People often come in saying, ‘can’t get a job. I’ve a got a bachelor’s and master’s degree and can’t get a job.’ There’s stress around making ends meet.”
