CityView Magazine

Above | The CARE Clinic provides medical and dental care to the uninsured and underinsured, but it wouldn’t be possible without volunteers including Toby Obi-Gwacham and Nashawanda Willis. provides some insight into the personal rewards a doctor can enjoy at the CARE Clinic. “No matter how many years you practice,” he says, “it’s rare to have a patient really thank you. They’ve paid for your service, it’s a business arrangement. But at the CARE Clinic, it is rare for a patient not to thank you – and mean it sincerely.” Dr. George Nettles is a retired physician whose career included private practice as an internist and a subsequent five-year stint at the local Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Now, at 74, Nettles is perhaps even busier than he was as a practicing physician. He’s a member of a carpentry ministry at his church and on the day we spoke with him, he had just assisted a friend rebuilding a deck. His day would conclude with a mid-week evening shift at the CARE Clinic. Asked why he is spending his retirement volunteering, Nettles laughed and said, “Well, what else should I do – just do nothing? I would feel pretty bad sitting at home with all these people who need help.” 48|August/September • 2009 Nettles, who is fit and doesn’t look his age, makes the point that it is more than altruism that motivates the medical professionals at the CARE Clinic. “My work here benefits me, too,” he points out. “It gives me a reason to keep my skills up. After 50 years of practicing medicine, I want to continue to do that work.” Nettles may be more right than he knows – a recent study at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago indicates that retirees over 65 who volunteered had less than half the risk of dying during a four-year follow- up period as did those who did not volunteer. Cathy Ory is executive director of the CARE Clinic. She observes the interaction among the volunteer medical professionals and the patients they help. She amplifies the point made by Dr. Shereff – the gratitude and appreciation of the patients is valued by the doctors and dentists who help them. “You rarely see a rude or demanding patient here,” she says, “and the doctors appreciate that.” Ory mentions another category of physician volunteer at the CARE Clinic. Third-year residents at Womack Army Medical Center pull specific shifts at the clinic thanks to a formal contract between the two entities. As the CARE Clinic benefits from the reliable presence and assistance of the physicians, the young doctors benefit from seeing a patient base that is more diverse than the young and healthy soldiers and their families who are typically seen at Womack. “Some of our volunteer dentists,” Ory says, “may see a patient here who has never seen a dentist before. Or there may be a co-existing medical condition that complicates the necessary dentistry.” Even as this article is being written, the topic of health care in America is being put before Congress as a presidential domestic priority. No one knows what the future may hold for the health care of Americans who are “the working poor,” the underinsured or those without health insurance at all. But as long as there are sick patients with few options and volunteer doctors, dentists and other medical professionals who will donate their time and skills, the CARE Clinic in Fayetteville stands ready to address the need.CV

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