Common Ground Health Clinic, New Orleans By Max Fischer, MD |
Katrina destroyed the Charity Hospital, leaving residents with nowhere to go for diabetes and hypertension medications, wound care, asthma exacerbations and other primary care needs. Initially, three Street Medics joined Rahim and Johnson to create a first aid station. As more volunteers arrived, this grew into a makeshift clinic, operating out of the donated space of a mosque.
| “The Common Ground Health Clinic, part of the Common Ground Collective, is an excellent domestic example of Liberation Medicine. A placard outside reads, "This is Solidarity, NOT Charity."” |
The Common Ground Health Clinic, part of the Common Ground Collective, is an excellent domestic example of Liberation Medicine. A placard outside reads, "This is Solidarity, NOT Charity." It was founded with the goal of breaking through established paternalistic and often race- and class-biased provision of health care. Among those residents who had access to routine health care before the hurricanes, many were on confusing and antiquated drug regimens, and had never received thorough self-care education. For some, Common Ground became their first source of medical care in years, largely a tribute to the welcoming and non-judgmental environment that one finds at Common Ground.
Moreover, in the post-hurricane medical system chaos, the clinic was usually an endpoint rather than a gateway for health care, with most hospitals and clinics still closed. The concept of follow-up care was also new to many of our visitors. One middle-aged man, Rodney, had been nursing a wound in his big toe for a month before he came to the clinic. After I extracted an old bullet shell that had migrated to the surface, I became very anxious when he did not return for wound care. Days later, he was seen joyously running down the street to thank some Common Ground volunteers and invite them to his home.
Herbalists, acupuncturists, physical therapists, massage therapists and clinical social workers also staff the clinic. This integrative approach provides the people of Algiers with options that many never had due to the socioeconomic stratification of these services. There is an unyielding passion among the providers at Common Ground to transform the disaster into an opportunity for growth and solidarity. Given a predominantly white, middle-class volunteer base, volunteer orientation sessions emphasize recognizing racism and classism in medical care, and how we can move towards a clinical model based on partnership rather than paternalism and hierarchy.
Clinic organizers work tirelessly to ensure that everyone feels welcome and treated with high quality, humane medical care, despite the limited resources. Since no one is turned away, the clinic - volunteer-run and working from donations - was also frequented by government-paid workers brought into the area, who apparently were not provided with their own health services.
Advocacy has also been a large part of the work. We saw families with young children who were living in homes deemed 'safe,' yet the children exhibited a multitude of signs and symptoms indicating otherwise. We documented our findings and wrote letters to landlords, advocating for the health of the children and elderly. For patients requiring emergency care, we accompanied them to the hospital as patient advocates. Common Ground also holds a legal clinic to help residents fight illegal evictions, and a "cop watch" video surveillance project to monitor unwarranted police activity against community members, an occasionally dangerous effort as two volunteers were beaten up, and one had his life threatened by officers of the New Orleans Police Department. Other major work includes distribution centers and community outreach.
During the month we spent at Common Ground, the outcomes were strikingly positive. Over 100 patients were seen each day at the main clinic, many coming for follow-up. Satellite clinics in the Ninth and Seventh Wards and in Latin American and Vietnamese immigrant communities brought increasing numbers of people into the Common Ground circle. Patients frequently expressed the desire to continue receiving long-term follow-up care with providers they had seen at the clinic, and many have become involved themselves as volunteers.
The challenges remain to transform this into a truly community-owned initiative, to find harmony between anarchist ideals and tight clinical standards, and to continue operating as an all-volunteer free clinic. One organizer, Scott Weinstein, aptly described the process as "building the plane while flying it." Now housed in a more permanent space with regular coverage by local physicians and greater numbers of local volunteers, Common Ground continues to grow.
However, outside volunteers are still critical. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has certified the Common Ground Health Clinic, so out-of-state health professionals can get credentialed to volunteer with the clinic for up to 60 days at a time. This period has been extended indefinitely. The clinic also needs more diagnostic instruments, including glucometers and test strips, blood pressure cuffs, stethoscopes, urine dipsticks, pregnancy tests, pulse oximeters, dopplers, a 12-lead EKG machine and an automated defibrillator. The in-house pharmacy accepts donations of unexpired medications in unopened bottles or packages. To learn more, visit www.cghc.org, www.commongroundrelief.org, or e-mail healthalgiers@yahoo.com.
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