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From left, the Martha Eliot Health Center's Izabela Gasior, , Tarsha Weaver, Ramonita Pedroga (front), Elrette Marion and Jim Cote |
"A community health center is a place where I can receive quality health care, medical care, mental care or social services from qualified professionals with dignity and respect regardless of my race, cultural or economic background. A place where consumers play a major role in both the planning and delivery of services."
—Mildred Hailey, 1987
These words, uttered 20 years ago by Mildred Hailey, a well-respected Boston community activist and driving force behind the creation of Martha Eliot Health Center (MEHC), in Jamaica Plain (JP), continue to capture the goal of Children's Hospital Boston's community health center: to provide compassionate care to a highly diverse population. Today, these words also serve as a reminder of the important role of community health centers in providing high quality culturally competent care in Boston, which has officially become a "majority minority" city.
This month, MEHC and Children's
celebrate the health center's 40th anniversary, its achievements and the dedication of its staff, whose growth and diversity reflects the community it serves. Since its humble beginnings as a makeshift "well-baby" clinic in a woodworking room serving families of its neighboring low-income housing development, MEHC has become a stand-alone comprehensive health center providing pediatric primary care, along with adult, adolescent, OB/GYN, mental health, nutrition, optometry, HIV and early intervention services to families in JP, Mission Hill and other Boston neighborhoods.
The creation of MEHC instantly resulted in improved access to quality care. It was welcomed by JP families, particularly those with children, who in the past had to trek to Children's. In 1967, the center was named after Martha May Eliot, MD, a pediatrician who, for more than 50 years, took a leadership role in the development of health services for mothers and children. Today, MEHC is housed in a 25,345 square foot building with 21 exam rooms. More than 120 employees, consisting of physicians, nurses, therapists, nutritionists, social workers and administrators, serve the nearly 9,000 patients who make about 56,000 visits a year.
In its pursuit of higher levels of excellence, MEHC recently named Jim Cote as its new executive director and added several new positions. Former director of Ambulatory Services at Children's, Cote aims to support the center's current programs, training and development opportunities for employees while assessing the community's needs and expanding services accordingly. "Many of our patients come in with a barrier prohibiting them from accessing health care, whether it is language, economic or social," he says. "We want to break down those barriers. We also want the community to know that we work hand-in-hand with Children's and our patients receive the same level of care and service they would at the hospital."
Despite its growth and the many changes its neighborhood has undergone in the past 40 years, MEHC's commitment and mission remain unwavering, and the center's staff prides itself on caring for the vibrant population of African-Americans, Latinos, Somalis, Cape Verdeans and other ethnicities. As a result, Children's considers MEHC its lens into the local community. "It's about getting into the fabric of our community," says Karen Darcy, a former co-executive director of MEHC. "It's why we have health fairs and conduct youth and adolescent outreach. We're genuinely committed to the community and we're involved in their tragedies, accomplishments and celebrations."
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