Tag: 50 for 50

By Monica Simmons
Communications Coordinator

Dr. Steven Crow, People’s longest tenured employee, celebrates his 27th year at the clinic in 2020. His People’s story started in the basement of the Congregational Church, where the first clinic was held. Dr. Crow (then just an undergraduate at UT) began volunteering in 1983 during the beginning of the HIV epidemic, a time when little was known about the virus. People’s was the first location in Austin where patients could get anonymous testing. While working up to 90 hours a semester, Dr. Crow was immersed in a way of caring for patients that was distinct.

“This was long before HIV treatment, but that didn’t matter to [People’s doctor] Dr. Blair,” said Dr. Crow. “He’d spend as much time in the room as the patient needed. Sometimes that meant clinic would run really late, but that wasn’t as important as giving good care.”

The experience of working at the clinic inspired him to become the compassionate provider he is today. Dr. Crow says that the original ethos of People’s, to treat patients with dignity and respect, has remained the same throughout the nearly three decades he’s been a doctor.

“While many things have changed (new buildings, new technology, new faces), kind culture has always propagated over the years,” said Dr. Crow.

Thanks, Dr. Crow, for teaching us kindness and togetherness through your work.

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This year is BIG for People’s Community Clinic. In 2020 People’s marks 50 years of providing affordable, accessible health care to Central Texans in need. That’s 50 years of serving Central Texas communities with dignity and respect; 50 years of collaborating with other area non-profits for integrative care; 50 years of working for #healthequity and #affordablecare in Central Texas. Keep making stories like Fred’s possible with a donation to People’s.

By Monica Simmons
Communications Coordinator

In 1973, Niki Richardson moved to Austin, pregnant with her second child. She searched for a doctor’s office that would accept a patient who planned an at-home birth. At the time, less than 3% of births in the U.S. occurred outside of a hospital, and doctors were unfamiliar with the practice. After several rejections, she found People’s Community Clinic, whose doctors and nurses wanted to support her in a home birth.

“I met Phil Zyblot, MD, Mary Barnett, CNM, Ken Blair, MD, Marie Draudt, and so many more who gave me great prenatal care when other clinics had immediately said ‘no, can’t help you,’” Niki said.

After a happy at-home birth, Niki set out to establish a collective of midwives. That collective, eventually known as Austin Lay Midwives, would become the first in Austin. People’s Community Clinic was their go-to clinic for prenatal care.

“People’s support was invaluable in helping us establish a strong home birth option in Austin in the early 70’s,” Niki said. “Without People’s, our mothers would’ve had a very difficult time finding a doctor willing to care for them.”

Today, as always, People’s care is focused on empowering patients and enabling them to take charge of their own health.

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This year is BIG for People’s Community Clinic. In 2020, People’s marks 50 years of providing affordable, accessible health care to Central Texans in need. That’s 50 years of serving Central Texas communities with dignity and respect; 50 years of collaborating with other area non-profits for integrative care; 50 years of working for #healthequity and #affordablecare in Central Texas. #Peoples50for50. https://www.austinpcc.org/make-a-gift/

 

By Monica Simmons
Communications Coordinator

Fred was standing in the shower getting ready for work when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his back. He fell as his legs collapsed beneath him. He was rushed to the hospital where, it was discovered, a slipped disk had shot out and damaged his spinal cord. A five month stay in the hospital and just as many surgeries later, Fred had lost his job— along with his medical insurance. That’s when doctors at St. David’s referred him to People’s Community Clinic.

Disabled from the spinal injury, Fred came to People’s unable to walk and had difficulty speaking. Before, he had always been successful at supporting his family of seven children, but with the deterioration of his health and the subsequent loss of his job, Fred found himself in a dark place.

Slowly but surely the People’s care team helped turn his life around. People’s has provided Fred an array of services including doctor visits, acupuncture, diet counseling, and legal intervention. Fred also sees a licensed master of social work who has helped him navigate his new reality. Thanks to the integrative medicine that took care of his medical, legal, and behavioral health needs, and Fred’s own determination, he is walking, talking, and living a full life. Now, he gives back to the community as a minister and serves on People’s Board of Directors.

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This year is BIG for People’s Community Clinic. In 2020 People’s marks 50 years of providing affordable, accessible health care to Central Texans in need. That’s 50 years of serving Central Texas communities with dignity and respect; 50 years of collaborating with other area non-profits for integrative care; 50 years of working for #healthequity and #affordablecare in Central Texas. Keep making stories like Fred’s possible with a donation to People’s.

By Monica Simmons
Communications Coordinator

This week we’re kicking off our #Peoples50for50 project with a story from Nurse Candice Trulson, who has been at People’s Community Clinic since 2001.

Candice is one of those people whose doesn’t call her job a “job,” rather, a calling. When she was a little girl—an immigrant from Vietnam—she had an experience that changed the course of her life. As the family awaited entrance into the U.S., her mother endured terrible suffering in a refugee camp where she was unable to receive medical care. It was then that Candice made it her personal mission to do what she could to undo the injustice and inequality in the healthcare system.

“Health care should be blind,” said Candice. “There is no creed, color, no race, and certainly there is no monetary value when you deliver medical, dental, any services that help to heal that person.”

As an adult, Candice worked at several health centers before coming to People’s where she found the mission and culture aligned with her own.

“People’s provides services that I don’t see in other clinics,” Candice said. “We offer wrap-around care that makes a big difference in our patient’s lives.”

Nursing, she says, is a noble career, but one that is often invisible. Still, she wouldn’t change a thing about the path she’s chosen.

“Nurses are the ones who manage patients over the phones. We’re the ones on the receiving end of a patient’s amazing story that causes pain, anger, fatigue, sometimes joy,” said Candice. “We are privileged to be trusted with their deepest moments.”

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This year is BIG for People’s Community Clinic. In 2020 People’s marks 50 years of providing affordable, accessible health care to Central Texans in need. That’s 50 years of serving Central Texas communities with dignity and respect; 50 years of collaborating with other area non-profits for integrative care; 50 years of working for #healthequity and #affordablecare in Central Texas.

By Monica Simmons
Communications Coordinator

The first time Nancy Lozoria walked into People’s Community Clinic she was 15, pregnant, and without secure housing.

“The reason why my husband and I kept coming back to People’s was because they never made us feel like young, dumb teenagers,” said Lozoria. “They gave us relevant information about birth control and pregnancy, but we always knew the choice was ours.”

After suffering two miscarriages, Lozoria was comforted to learn from Health Educators that many women experience multiple miscarriages before having a viable pregnancy. At 18, she decided to take hormonal birth control to avoid pregnancy until she graduated from high school, and until she and her husband could afford their own place.

People’s helped Lozoria get up to date with her immunizations so that she could return to high school. Financial counselors worked with them to connect them with support services. Social workers counseled Lozoria and husband Hondo through the uncertain period of time when both their families had kicked them out of their respective homes.

Seeing so many sides of the organization, Lozoria said to herself, “one day I’d like to be one of the people helping. One day, I’d like work here.” Little did she know exactly how her dream would come true.

Eventually, Lozoria did have her much-hoped-for baby, daughter Araceli. A new chapter in her life began as she asked herself the big question: “what kind of life do I want my kids to have?” That’s when she decided to quit working retail jobs and start her career as a Dental Lab Technician. She went to school and was hired for her first job at a private dental practice. Then Lozoria landed at St. David’s program, where she was the Dental Assistant on a van dubbed “T4.”

Fast-forward to 2018, when St. David’s Foundation donated the same fully equipped van to help People’s jumpstart its dental program. Lozoria was hired to bring the program to life, fulfilling her wish to give back to the organization that helped her through her tumultuous teen years.

Responsible for getting People’s Dental Department running, she worked carefully with the People’s operations team to design the program, oversaw the installation of the van where patients receive care, and helped find a dentist who was “just the right fit” for People’s. Lozoria also coordinated the special design of the van wrap, which now stands out in the Camino La Costa parking lot. Lozoria made sure that the tag “T4” painted near the door of the van remained visible, a token to remember how new beginnings are always possible.

“We try our best to show patients that they are in control of what goes into their mouth,” Lozoria said with a laugh. “Just like any other department at People’s, we’re all about empowering the patient with options.”

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This year is BIG for People’s Community Clinic. In 2020 People’s marks 50 years of providing affordable, accessible health care to Central Texans in need. That’s 50 years of serving Central Texas communities with dignity and respect; 50 years of collaborating with other area non-profits for integrative care; 50 years of working for #healthequity and #affordablecare in Central Texas. Keep making stories like Fred’s possible with a donation to People’s.