Clinic Expands to Aid Community
Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Dec. 6 edition of Park Cities People.
Ten years ago, leaders of the Preston Road Church of Christ saw a need for health-care services in their community, so they got to work. Today, Christ’s Family Clinic is looking to expand further.
“There are a lot of people in the community who do not have access to preventative care,” University Park resident Steven Brad-ford said of the clinic’s beginnings. “We were able to get a lot of pieces pulled together.”
Today, Bradford acts as the board chairman for the clinic, which operates in the basement of the church. His wife, Katrina, is the medical director.
She started as a volunteer physician when the clinic opened, and took up her current role when the previous physician, James Walton, passed his duties to her.
“It’s just a natural outreach of what I do,” said Katrina, who volunteered at a facility downtown before Christ’s Family Clinic existed. “I want to help people, and I believe it’s part of my life as a Christian to help others; as a physician, I do that in a concrete way.”
Today, the clinic relies on a pool of volunteers that fill an assortment of roles: physician, specialist, nurse, and translator, to name a few. But the clinic still needs more help financially and otherwise to continue.
At the close of 2012, a grant that had been provided through the Dallas County Medical Society ended as part of the Affordable Care Act. Now, the goal is to raise enough funds to reinstate the part-time physician’s position lost with the grant.
The clinic has brought on a part-time executive director, however, to help guide the clinic’s growth.
“We have always sought to be a blessing not only to the people receiving care, but to the volunteers and supporters,” executive director Jamie Malakoff said. “This is a way for serving the poor to be a blessing in their lives as well.”
The mission of the clinic is “to share God’s love while offering top-quality health care to the working poor and their families.” Last year alone, the clinic saw 197 patients and had more than 1,100 visits.
In the next year, the Bradfords hope to see an increase in fundraising as well as volunteers, both medical and otherwise, in order to keep the clinic running at its best and hopefully inspire others.
“We see this clinic as a prototype example of clinics that could be implemented in churches all over,” Steven said.
