"The purpose of these grants is to help shape a social support system of community organizations that collaborate on common goals, to ensure that all residents are reaching their full potential as active members of a vital community," said Owen Lynch,DC, a chiropractor involved with running the clinic.
The West Burnside clinic, located in the Salvation Army's Harbor Light facility, offers free chiropractic care to the underserved and uninsured population of downtown Portland. Roughly half of its patients are unemployed and a quarter are homeless.
"United Way chose to invest in this project because it addresses an area of significant need in the Portland metropolitan area, serves a population we believe could benefit from chiropractic care, focuses on measurable outcomes for patients, involves extensive collaboration with other organizations, and may also yield useful research findings," said Vision Council Manager Robert Gassner, of the Columbia-Willamette branch of the United Way.
The clinic is seeking a DC to work part-time as its primary provider; currently, interns from the college staff the WBCC. They will continue to provide patient care alongside the primary DC.
The WBCC is a member of the Coalition of Community Health Clinics - made up of 10 nonprofit clinics that offer health care to the underinsured of Multnomah County; the clinics log 30,000 visits annually.
"Residents of drug and alcohol rehab programs frequently suffer with headaches, musculoskeletal pain and resulting temporary disabilities," noted Dr. Lynch. The care provided at the clinic is intended to reduce patients' drug dependencies and improve treatment outcomes through chiropractic.
Patients at the clinic include residents of substance abuse rehabilitation programs, through cooperation with the Volunteers of America of Oregon and DePaul Treatment Centers.
Dr. Fred Colley,PhD,MPH, chair of the grants committee for WSCC, seeks outside funding for the college's chiropractic programs. An employee of WSCC since 1979, he has helped obtain other grants for the university, including a $223,000 grant last spring from the MJ Murdock Charitable Trust, allocated for digital electronic and photographic equipment for classroom instruction. "I have a long-term interest in seeing chiropractic integrated into the public health system of this country, with particular emphasis on preventative public health," Dr. Colley.
The grant covers the period from July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003. This represents the first time the United Way has offered a grant to WSCC for the clinic.
"Drs. Lynch and Colley are experienced practitioners and dedicated researchers, interested in practical results that help patients," observed Mr. Gassner of the United Way. "Through this project (and others), they are also demonstrating how much they and the college value and benefit from collaborating with a variety of public, private and nonprofit organizations."
Editor's note: The United Way encourages nonprofit chiropractic organizations to seek it and other local sources of funding to support health-promoting projects. You can reach the United Way on line at http://national.unitedway.org/index.cfm.
Ryan Lockwood, associate editor