CityView Magazine

City Angel Good as GOLD Better Health of Cumberland County celebrates its 50th By J. Alison Paul anniversary Above | A weekly diabetes clinic at Better Health of Cumberland County serves as a support network for Cumberland County residents including Alfred Davenport, from left, Thomas Bell and Thomas Hodges. Above | Elizabeth Mackey monitors Robert Roberts’ blood pressure. disease. Now, he manages his condition with weekly visits to the diabetes clinic at Better Health of Cumberland County. It’s just one of the many ways the non- T profit agency brings health care to the underserved, the way it has for the past 50 years. As Congress debates today’s health care crisis, the same problems of health costs and access plagued a group of Cumberland County citizens in 1958. They were concerned that many of their 66|August/September • 2009 homas Hodges lives for Tuesdays – literally. For years, the 85-year- old retired airman lived with diabetes, never knowing he had the neighbors could not afford medicine. It was this group of “ordinary, yet extraordinary” individuals that founded Better Health. They included Ruth Peters, a World War II nurse who ran the agency out of her home for Better Health’s first 25 years. Today, the organization is overseen by a board of 18 directors. As a United Way agency, Better Health relies heavily on volunteers and donations. Executive Director Judy Klinck joined the team six years ago after earning her master’s in health care administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Better Health is perhaps best known for its direct aid programs: emergency financial assistance for people who fall well below the federal poverty guideline. This pays for prescription medicines, vision exams and eyeglasses, orthotics and prosthetics, medical supplies and emergency dental extractions. Klinck says Better Health assists clients for short periods while connecting them with Cumberland County Medication Access Program for long-term assistance. James Kerchmar saw this direct aid for himself in 1995 and was so impressed he eventually became a member of the agency’s board of directors. That

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