Doctors can treat a patient’s physical problems, but when it comes to what ails many patients, money, the cure is elusive.
Even if the only help a patient needs is a bus pass, or stable housing or a few job skills — there’s no prescription to make it happen, even though those problems may have as big an impact on a patient’s illness as any physical malady. As a nurse practitioner, Maisha Fields, executive director of the Fields-Wolfe Memorial Foundation, saw those cases too often.
“They needed the high blood pressure medication,” said Fields. “But at the end of the day I wanted to write a prescription that said: here’s a job, here’s a voucher for preschool, here is a book.”
A storefront on Dayton Street just south of East Colfax Avenue is now offering a wide variety of services for people in need — whether it’s medical care, job training or education.
The Fields-Wolfe Memorial Foundation is open at the Dayton Street Opportunity Center at 1445 Dayton Street. The facility offers free health care for the uninsured, job training skills, college counseling for young people and help for others navigating various social service programs they may qualify for.
The facility offers health care through the DAWN Clinic, a program run by medical students at the nearby University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus. Colorado State University will also have a presence there, Fields said, providing financial aid counselors and admissions counselors for students looking at college.
Urban Health Care Access Resources:
- Colorado Urban Health Care
- DAWN Clinic
- Dayton Street Opportunity Center
- Fields-Wolfe Memorial Foundation
- University of Colorado Student Staffed Clinic
