As COVID-19 cases rise in our region, La Clinica’s teams have been working around the clock to make services available remotely for patients and clients who are at home, while keeping our doors open for necessary health care.
I am deeply moved by the commitment of our frontline staff to show up for work every day, learn new ways to work remotely, and manage their own fears and personal challenges to ensure our community gets care.
I know our staff are acutely aware of the lifeline they represent for many of our clients who do not have computers, smartphones, cars, support systems, or access to reliable information in Spanish. Our staff know the role they play in ensuring access to health, guidance, education, and support for our patients and their families. This motivates them to work even harder and is profoundly inspiring to me.
I know that so many of you are reconfiguring your own lives to adjust to this new reality, but I ask you to keep in your thoughts those most vulnerable among us, and to please donate what you can, today.
We are expecting a significant revenue loss for La Clinica. Our #1 priority right now is to continue to provide care to our patients and the wider Latino immigrant community through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. However, your donation today will help us weather immediate losses and prepare for the unavoidable financial needs ahead.
I expect you are receiving many requests for support; these are indeed critical times for so many of us. But it is also a time that we can scrape up what we can for those who truly are struggling. We are the safety-net that can determine a better outcome for those whose health is at risk.
La Clinica delivers programs that are anchored in human connection and a shared culture and language. We have been finding new ways to preserve that. Our mental health and behavioral health addictions counseling are fully operational through telehealth. La Casa “en su casa” is providing culturally appropriate education on COVID-19, navigating clients to food, mailing out boxes of condoms to high risk clients, and reaching out to the very elderly who are most in need of contact. Our interpreters are stepping in to help patients navigate the health system, and staff are supporting clients that are already contending with loss of jobs, lack of food, violence at home, and issues with public benefits. We are building our resources to help bridge our clients through these real losses and threats to maintaining good health.
We have already equipped our staff with technology to reach out to our community members – ensuring the line is open and we can continue to provide care in the way that builds a healthier community. We are amplifying our message on Spanish-language media and representing the needs of our clients in the policy changes in our region.
As we have limited our services to keep our patients and staff healthy, we will continue to lose revenue that comes with service delivery. If you are in the position to increase your support, your gift right now will help us get through this critical funding challenge, and significantly boost our ability to keep our community healthy.
In Solidarity,
Catalina Sol
Executive Director
PS. As the days progress, we will have virtual events, additional calls to action, and some good food for thought on how we can support one another, so stay tuned via email and social media. This is going to be a challenging year, and each of your contributions will be a part of the remedy in getting through this.