Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics (SBNC) put an examination room on wheels. Effectively, it’s really two non-public examination rooms, a rest room, vaccine storage, and a complete host of medical tools for checking up on the individuals who can’t make it out to a clinic themselves.
It’s a rudimentary however ingenious suggestion to unravel a posh downside: If individuals can’t come to the clinic, why not convey the clinic to them?
The nonprofit’s new “Medical and Behavioral Well being Cellular Unit” — in addition to a separate van for dentistry that’s nonetheless within the works — can be hitting the streets this fall to do precisely that.
The $300,000 cell unit (paid for by one nameless donor) will attain faculties throughout Santa Barbara and Goleta, in addition to senior facilities, well being festivals, agricultural websites, and different places. It’ll be staffed by a medical supplier, medical assistant, behavioral well being specialist, and a nurse — staff transferred from their small Built-in Care Clinic on Anapamu Avenue that closed a couple of months in the past.
“We’re going to be reaching out to the group, and it’s going to be a distinct trade for us, however I feel we’re all prepared for this,” mentioned Eva Bretado, the clinic’s supervisor, at their ribbon-cutting occasion on Thursday.
Dr. Mahdi Ashrafian, SBNC CEO, mentioned there’s a nice want for behavioral well being companies in Santa Barbara’s faculties, sophisticated by the truth that many mother and father within the space work full-time.
Regardless of how doting they’re, if a dad or mum is working lengthy hours simply to place meals on the desk, their little one’s psychological well being, and generally bodily well being, can nonetheless find yourself being discounted or ignored. Some mother and father wrestle to search out the time, and cash, for non-urgent medical appointments.
“Younger youngsters can go unnoticed, and sadly, generally, untreated,” Ashrafian mentioned. “We wish to change that…. We wish to take away these boundaries; we wish to take the clinic and our care to the varsity, and simply be there for the scholars.”
Inside Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic’s new Medical and Behavioral Well being Cellular Unit | Credit score: Callie Fausey
However the clinic will even park its companies at shelters to assist unhoused populations, in addition to underserved neighborhoods the place SBNC doesn’t have a everlasting clinic, and can be deployed in areas affected by pure disasters and emergencies. As a nonprofit and federally certified and funded well being heart, care is offered no matter a affected person’s means to pay. Charges are on a sliding scale, primarily based on the affected person’s earnings, with some sufferers paying little or nothing for his or her companies.
“It’s uncharted territory, as a result of there’s a lot we will do,” Ashrafian added. “Wherever there may be want, we will present it.”
