Light in the Darkness

The Common Ground Free Clinic: New Orleans

It is quiet and still when you look down many of the streets of New Orleans. Too quiet. At night is the eeriest, not only is there no sound but it is dark—very dark. The air is still, the trash sits in piles, and every now and then a car speeds by. This experience has taught me that lights are really what makes a city a city.

It is dark, but if you drive through different parts of the city, you’ll start seeing lights here and there, people laughing, brass band music, and lots of work noises. There are truly amazing things happening here.

I arrived in New Orleans to assist with the grassroots relief efforts. There seems to be a few different relief efforts, depending on the neighborhood you are in. One of them is called Common Ground. Common Ground is a collective of folks that came together following hurricane Katrina to help distribute supplies and from that a group of medics formed the Common Ground Free Clinic. Being a health practitioner, I went to go work with this Free Clinic. The Clinic was operating out of a Mosque in the neighborhood of Algiers and has now moved across the street into an old retail store at 1400 Teche Street. The clinic has expanded to open another location in the Lower 9^th Ward and yet another clinic, The Odyssey Free Clinic, has also opened. In addition to clinics, there is a mobile Latino Health Outreach Program that works in different areas to distribute supplies and provide services. It is one of the most exciting things I could have ever imagined would come out of such a tragedy.

When you first walk up to the clinic location on Teche there are usually people milling around outside. Inside, the clinic is completely full of patients and practitioners from the time the clinic opens until in closes. There are Nurses, MD’s, Herbalists, Massage Therapists, Acupuncturists, Mental Health Counselors, Interns and Med Students and more, working side by side in a non-heirarchical fashion. Each practitioner group is autonomous and works together to help the patients and clients get the help they need.

The clinic is set up to give out vaccinations, do lab tests, see patients for various afflictions, and is also working to educate and empower community members to learn about their health. Some community members have also been integrated into the administration of the clinic. Being an holistic herbalist, I was expecially happy to be working autonomously and in a truly integrative way with allopathic practitioners. The allopaths were excited to have us there and referred there patients to us. Some even came to see us for herbal consultations. There seems to be a general openness to different modalities of healing.

The patients at the clinic were very enthusiastic about the services as well. To be seen, one fills out intake forms and puts their name down and waits. The intake forms ask if the patient is interested in various holistic therapies and they check off what types of therapies they would like to try. They are then referred to the therapist of their choice as they are available. Even if the patients are waiting to see a doctor they are offered herbal consultations while they wait. Sometimes the other practitioners will refer their clients and patients to each other, or patients will ask specifically for herbs instead of meds so the MD’s and Nurses send them over to the Herbalists. Many of the patients have never seen an herbalist or massage therapist before and the few I saw were extremely interested and asked about upcoming classes.

The herb station is full of donations from around the country, ranging from well known companies to fresh, wildcrafted regional herbs from individual herbalists. I worked to inventory the various treasures and it almost brought tears to my eyes to see it all in one place. There are tinctures, dried plants, pills, homeopathic remedies, flower essences and vitamins to draw from and distribute.

The clinic is undergoing a lot of changes in structure and function. There are new licensing laws that have to followed. They are in need of LA state licensed MD’s to volunteer. The clinic is getting a little more decentralized and there are a lot of questions as to the future of the clinic. There is a need for folks that can work in a more sustained, longer term capacity to offer trainings, organizational support. I am expecially interested in finding funding for the holistic therapists so that folks can afford to be there longer and help keep this model of integrated health care going. There is no telling what the future could bring. The herb station is in need of donations and supplies and a wish list is going to be circulated.

I have lots of questions, so does everyone, about what the fate of the city will now be. People are coming back but there is a housing crisis. There is also talk that levees are not fortified enough and that a disaster could happen again. Many neighborhoods are toxic and relief workers and residents are getting sick with rashes and respiratory illnesses.

Some residents don’t want to come back to New Orleans, but many do and are starting to trickle back in. The French Quarter is of course white-washed enough so that tourists can come drink and pass out on street corners. Being a part of the relief effort is still greatly needed and there is huge potential for this model of integrative health to be long term and built upon in other communities. It is a city of darkness, but it is also a city of light and its soul is still very much alive and kicking.

For More Information you can go to

http://www.commongroundrelief.org/

or email me at texasherbalist@yahoo.com