Care is the operative word, the prefix. Health should be the suffix. If we don’t really care, we cannot improve on any of the parameters of health. Metropolitan Philadelphia is home to 6 medical schools and dozens of institutions of higher medical education. Despite that, it ranks near the bottom of every single health parameter in the nation.
Philadelphia serves as both the model of scientific medical advances and the gutter of providing care for the disadvantaged. A community’s health is directly impacted by the institutional and individual provider’s motives to care for those most vulnerable and who are seen as ‘least desirable’ within our community. If we don’t care for the ‘least worthy’, we will fall short of providing for those we deem as ‘most deserving’. It is the least worthy that serve as a portal for the illnesses for the most deserving. Illnesses and diseases tend to ‘drift upwards’.
Drug addiction once tormented and tortured the disadvantaged. Now, the least vulnerable bear an unexpected and unmet burden of cocaine, heroin and other addictions. Hepatitis C was once considered the disease of the less privileged, less worthy of the citizens of inner-city America. It now ranks as one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in both rural America and urban white America.
Gang and gun violence have rendered urban neighborhoods as unsafe for police. Now suburban malls and upscale schools go on lockdown as people of color are locked up disproportionately.
Single parent homes with low wage single mothers were common denominators in determining the life chances of children in low income households in urban communities. Looking to the rural regions the statistics are just as bleak.
These realities can be directly causally related to the lack of care for the disadvantaged people of color. If we don’t care for one sector of our community, ultimately this lack of care spills over to those of other sectors. Care is the operative word. Without care, we don’t have healthcare.
Miriam Medical Clinics (MMC) puts the word ‘care’ as the prefix. We provide care for the health of those whom we serve, without regard for their color, culture, spiritual conviction or country of origin. MMC serves in concert with many other organizations providing material and professional resources to the most vulnerable residents of the Philadelphia community. MMC cares because caring is the only way to meet the persistent disparity of health parameters. Philadelphia doesn’t need more institutions of research, more clinical trials, more medical professionals or even more money to meet the needs of its poorest citizens. What Philadelphia needs is more caring from those who claim to have the answers to be the providers of health resources.
MMC has served in the North Philadelphia community for over 5 years. Our professional staff of volunteers have provided dental, podiatric, nursing, medical and counseling services as well as clinical pharmacologists. These services include both in office and house call visits by appointment and urgent care as deemed appropriate.
We care. Caring is the sole motive of MMC. Our services are self-funded and restricted only by the limitations imposed by personal and financial resources of the volunteers. Hence, MMC is always on the search for people who have the motivation to care. MMC seeks to expand from its present single site in North Philadelphia to several sites in the metropolitan area.
We invite you to be a part of our caring for the health of others so that we can help them make the best decisions for their health. Help us improve the parameters of health for metropolitan Philadelphia and its surrounding community. Join us at Miriam Medical Clinics. For more information, write or call us at the contacts below.
info@miriammedical.org
www.miriammedical.org
215-644-8745
We know you care and that is why we ask.