Jewish Family Service’s Health Center is Welcoming Neighbors

The clinic offers medical and behavioral care for anyone in need and is working with partner food pantries to ensure neighbors know care is available.

Deizel Sarte likes to compare health to a smart phone—it’s easy to ignore until it’s broken.

“We think, ‘I don’t need to see my doctor,’ but if you wake up with a cold and body aches, you want to see a doctor,” says Deizel, the Chief Operations Officer for Jewish Family Service of Greater Dallas (JFS). “It’s like our phone. We ignore it until it doesn’t work and then we get all flustered.”

At JFS’ Northpoint Community Health Center, which opened in March, they’re working to shift that view while ensuring neighbors have consistent access to both medical and behavioral health care.

Located around 5 miles from JFS’ offices in Dallas, Northpoint welcomes anyone in need and operates in a service area where nearly 800,000 low-income neighbors lack a medical provider, according to JFS research. Without a primary care doctor, many rely on emergency rooms or urgent care clinics. Some simply go without treatment.

“People need care,” Deizel says. “They’re relying on urgent care, which is not able to manage chronic disease.”

A North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) partner, JFS was already seeing many of these neighbors at its food pantry and wanted a place to refer them. Its mission is to provide accessible whole-person care so that neighbors can become self-sufficient, and healthcare was one wraparound service missing from their neighborhood. In support of that goal, the NTFB awarded JFS its first Hope for Tomorrow grant, which is being used for operations cost during the clinic’s first year. (Read more about that here).

The new clinic has 10 exam rooms and space for behavioral health and counseling. In a recent month, its Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Heather Esquivel, and her staff saw more than 160 patients, many of whom were referred from WatermarkUrgentCare nearby or from other NTFB partner food pantries.

They’re also working to spread the word so more families can visit and establish a medical home.

“Once they’re a patient, we’ll remind them to come in for physicals and really be proactive in establishing patient-centered care,” Deizel says.

As part of that recruitment effort,  JFS recently received a grant that allowed them to hire three community health workers. Those workers will be stationed at JFS’ food pantry as well as Network of Community Ministries, Vickery Meadow Food Pantry and Metrocrest Community Services. While there, they will give neighbors receiving food the chance to complete a health survey in exchange for a gift card. If a neighbor indicates on the survey that they haven’t seen a doctor recently, the health worker can set them up with an appointment at Northpoint Community Health Center right then.

“If they have an issue with transportation, we’re also able to coordinate that,” Deizel says.

The clinic accepts most major insurance and Medicaid, but it also sees those without insurance as Texas has the highest rate of residents without health coverage, according to the Census Bureau.

Natalie Markham, NTFB Strategic Initiative Manager, says that health and food insecurity are interrelated, which is why supporting places like Northpoint is important to the food bank. When individuals living with diabetes, hypertension or another chronic illness don’t have access to nutritious food, they can struggle to manage their condition.

Deizel agrees and says at Northpoint, patients can expect “a dignified and holistic approach” that addresses both their physical well-being as well as their mental health. And everyone is welcome.

“Healing doesn’t really happen on a set timeline, we’re here with them to get them through thick and thin with their help,” she says.

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