After 10 years of caring for others' health Ellen L. discovered the results of ignoring one's own.
At 55, Ellen left a healthcare job in Seattle to take care of a friend in Portland. The friend passed away five years later at the age of 94. Then Ellen took care of her elderly mother for the next five years.
"All this time I didn't have any other jobs," Ellen said. "Caregiving was my job."
Upon her mother's passing, Ellen found she had high blood pressure and no insurance for the first time in her life. In February 2010 she discovered the Essential Health Clinic's center in Tigard, where staff and volunteers met her urgent medical needs and helped her enroll in Project Access NOW.
Ellen said, " I got help almost immediately."
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Thanking Dr. Resnick and Portland Dermatology Clinic
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 Portland Dermatology Clinic's Barbara Resnick, MD, has been a part of Project Access NOW since its inception. Similar to many other pioneering physicians, she and her six dermatologist colleagues entered the Project Access program through a participating safety net clinic (Wallace Medical Concern).
"I've enjoyed volunteering at Wallace and I'm scheduled to return at the end of the summer," Dr. Resnick said. "With Project Access NOW I like that I can see patients here in my office where we're set up for the most efficient work flow and have everything we need. We can be active in the community from our office."
Each of the Clinic's physicians sees as many as 10 unique patients per year, providing initial and follow up care as needed. |
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Community volunteer highlight: Yolanda Moisa
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If you've been to our signature annual event, Bridges to Healthcare, you've seen the results and impact of Yolanda Moisa's work. She's been an integral part of the coordinating team, helping with the registration, silent auction, and donation accounting pieces.
Like so many other volunteers, Yolanda discovered us through a personal connection.
"I found out about the organization a few years back from Carrie Body, a nurse case manager at the Essential Health Clinic, who spoke highly of Project Access NOW," Yolanda said. "She connected me with [former Program Manager] Lorraine Williams, who was on the Clinic's board and helping with their own event. When Lorraine started working on the inaugural Bridges to Healthcare last year, she called me."
While with the first event Yolanda helped mainly the day of the event, the second Bridges to Healthcare saw her put in 200 volunteer hours over two months prior, during, and after the event.
The draw for Yolanda to Project Access NOW is personal and twofold.
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Staff profile: Anna Sease
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 A native-born Oregonian, Anna Sease discovered her life's passion in Mexico. As a Philomath Rotary Club exchange student, she spent a year in Coatepec, Veracruz, where she not only mastered Spanish but also intepreted for a medical team performing free surgeries, also a Rotary program.
"I love speaking Spanish," Anna said. "I usually go after any excuse that allows me to do that."
At the University of Oregon, where she earned a bachelor's of science in biology, Anna volunteered as an intepreter for Northwest Medical Teams (now Medical Teams International) dental van. She also worked in Costa Rica as a naturalist guide at an ecological reserve, which greatly improved her Spanish. She found Project Access NOW while traveling overseas after college.
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Thank you, silent auction donors!
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As we mentioned in our last newsletter, we are SO grateful to our silent auction donors for helping make our Bridges to Healthcare Event in April such a huge success. Here are some more local businesses that contributed to the silent auction. We invite you to help us continue to thank them through your patronage and/or purchase of their products or services.
And we also thank Susan Stearns, Molly Olson, Janet Buskirk, and Richard Nusser for their generous donations of items for the auction.
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