Byline: HEATHER LaROI hlaroi@madison.com 608-252-6143
At a time when 15-minute doctor's appointments tend to be routine, founders of the Shalom Holistic Health Services clinic say its patients should expect to spend a couple of hours there with care providers.
Quick fixes, after all, are not what Stoughton's new free health-care clinic is all about.
Shalom Holistic Health Services, slated to open June 12 in a tiny yellow house on Ridge Street not far from downtown Stoughton, aims to offer care for the body, mind and soul of the growing number of area residents who don't have health insurance.
Providing such holistic - or whole person - care is not a new concept, but it is a fairly non-traditional approach for health care targeting the uninsured. For many without insurance, doctor's visits typically are more about immediate care issues rather than chronic conditions or general wellness.
'Often when we think of health, we get too stuck on disease,' said Dorothy Petersen, a registered nurse at Stoughton Hospital who was a driving force behind founding the clinic. 'We pretty much deal with the physical component and a lot of the rest is lost. We forget the components of health that we could be learning about and improving us overall ... the emotional components, social components, spiritual components.'
The Shalom clinic, accordingly, will be routinely staffed with a mental health provider or counselor as well as a clergy member in addition to a registered nurse and physician.
'To be able to offer the kind of health care that is pretty inexpensive to provide but also incorporates health and wellness for those who don't have anything is very appealing,' said Dr. Roger Luhn, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc and vice chairman of the new clinic's board.
Uninsured need
It was a report that Stoughton Hospital's urgent care unit saw nearly 300 'self-pay' patients in 2004 that prompted some members of the community to seek out something more. For a city of 12,000 people, that number just seemed 'very significant' and suggested a larger hidden need, said the Rev. Lamarr Gibson of United Methodist Church, who serves as chairman of the clinic's advisory board.
Stoughton's needs clearly reflect a larger, nationwide problem. The number of Americans without health insurance reached 47 million in 2006, up more than 2 million from the previous year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In Wisconsin, about 9 percent of residents do not have insurance.
The Shalom clinic also joins an increasing number of free clinics in the area, largely funded by donations, that attempt to bridge gaps in health care for people who are uninsured or who find their coverage too costly. In the last two years, free clinics opened in Dodgeville, Richland Center and Boscobel. In Madison, federally funded clinics such as Access Community Health Centers on the East Side offer low-cost care to patients on a sliding fee scale.
Bobby Peterson, founder and executive director of Madison's ABC for Health, a nonprofit, public interest law firm dedicated to linking people in the area to health-care benefits and services, saluted the intent of the Shalom clinic while also acknowledging the 'big task' ahead.
'From a social service perspective, we do see the families that are getting services have multiple stresses in their lives and taking a look at the big picture is sometimes very important to help,' Peterson said.
'I think part of the effort to do this as a free community clinic can be, quite frankly, overwhelming because it's not a quick hit. It's then linking people to the appropriate resources in the community that can provide the longer, ongoing, sustainable effort. ... It's not a simple process.'
Ties to church
The Shalom clinic grew out of the START program - or Stoughton Area Resource Team program - based at the United Methodist Church since 1999. Over the years, START has expanded into an interfaith organization involving many Stoughton churches and other civic organizations.
Everyone who works at the nonprofit clinic will be a volunteer. Everything in the clinic - from the computers to the carpets to the crutches hanging in the closet - has been donated.
Skaalen Retirement Services, the adjacent nursing home which owns the house, offered the use of the building to the clinic. The local McGlynn Pharmacy and Stoughton Hospital will provide discounts to clinic patients for medications and services such as lab tests and X-rays.
Organizers have raised about $5,000 so far, primarily from local churches, community organizations and individual donations. Fundraising is expected to be an ongoing challenge.
'Shalom,' a Hebrew word that broadly means peace and well-being, ultimately speaks to what the clinic is hoping to provide, according to Gibson.
'From the pastoral point of view, it makes sense to look at all aspects of a person's health, the physical, mental, spiritual and social,' he said, noting that these areas of people's lives frequently can and do overlap. Mental health issues or economic difficulties may affect compliance with taking medications, for example.
'If you don't treat the whole person, you can give them all the drugs in the world but you're really not fixing the problem,' said Brenda Dottl, a registered nurse who's on the clinic's board. 'We want to go beyond the Band-Aid to treat the real cause and improve people's lives.'
SHALOM HOLISTIC HEALTH SERVICES
The Shalom Holistic Health Services clinic will offer free service to adults with no health insurance who live in the Stoughton School District. Children who are covered under BadgerCare will not be treated.
The clinic initially will provide service one day a week for four hours. It will not take walk-in appointments and is not intended to provide emergency care or perform invasive procedures. The clinic also will not carry any drugs on site.
TO FIND OUT MORE
Shalom Holistic Health Services, 1119 Ridge Street, Stoughton. Phone: 205-0505. E-mail: shalomhhs@gmail.com, Web site: www.shalomhs.com (both to be activated in early June).
Donations may be forwarded to Mary Smith, Treasurer, 1116 Ridge Street, P.O. Box 149, Stoughton, WI 53589.
CAPTION(S):
CRAIG SCHREINER State Journal
The new Shalom Holistic Health Services clinic in Stoughton, scheduled to
open June 12, will offer health care that spans body, mind and soul to
Stoughton adults who don't have health insurance. Registered nurse Dorothy
Schreiner and the Rev. Lamarr Gibson, of Stoughton's United Methodist Church,
played key roles in getting the project up and running.
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