SAMC patient navigator assists a patient with breast health information

The St. Anthony Medical Clinic Breast Health Program ensures access to potentially life-saving preventive and diagnostic services for uninsured, low-income and homeless women. Although only in its pilot year, by providing screening for so many women who lack other resources, we feel we have already been successful.

It is fundamental to our approach that each of our patients not only get the screenings they need, but that they also feel comfortable and experience a minimum of anxiety while going through the process. To this end we work to create a welcoming environment with multilingual patient navigators who help guide patients through the initial intake form, and by providing a nutritious breakfast for patients to enjoy while they wait.

Recently, Faten, one of our patient navigators and outreach coordinators, interviewed our patient Hakima about her experience having a mammogram at Avon last week.

Just click here, click “like,” and you’ve helped feed 2 warm meals to hungry San Franciscans. Already like our page? Tell a friend and help us meet our $5000 goal. It’s the easiest two meals you’ll ever cook!

Saturday, December 17th – Saturday, December 24th!

St. Anthony’s 24^th Annual Christmas Curbside Donation Drive begins on Saturday, December 17^th. St. Anthony Foundation staff and volunteers, wearing easily identifiable red jackets, will take delivery of food, clothing, and monetary donations at curbside, so donors won’t even have to leave their cars! Donated items are distributed free of charge to San Francisco’s most needy residents.

Your donation of NEW SOCKS, clean and ready-to-wear clothing, canned and dried foods are all much needed and appreciated! And if you’ve been working on hand knit scarves as holiday gifts to our guests, bring them in!

WHEN: December 17th-24th, 2011 – Weekends from 9-3 & Weekdays from 8-6

WHERE: St. Anthony Foundation - 105 Golden Gate @ Jones

NEEDED ITEMS:

Clothing
We need all kinds of clothing for men, women, and children – our most critical needs are for the following items:

Socks, Shoes
Underwear
Winter coats
Jackets
Hats

Monetary Donations

St. Anthony’s is happy to accept cash or checks for donation during Curbside and is prepared to issue receipts onsite for tax purposes.

ITEMS WE CANNOT ACCEPT:

Empty clothes hangers
Knick knacks
Used toys
Children’s car seats
Furniture
Medical equipment
Dirty, stained or torn items
Books and magazines
Exercise/sports equipment
Housewares
Computers, electronics

If you have any questions about donations, please call us at (415) 241-2600.

And in case you’d like to volunteer and join us for the holidays, call the St. Anthony Holiday Line at 415-592-2829. We look forward to seeing you!

The Big Blue Test takes place every November leading up to World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14. The campaign reinforces the importance of exercise in managing diabetes. Through Big Blue Test, Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF) called on people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, get active for 14 minutes or more, test again, and share the results at Bigbluetest.org. In the last three years, exercise decreased participants’ blood sugar level between 15 and 20 percent.

Roche’s support enabled DHF to provide critical funding to six nonprofit organizations. Five of those nonprofits are focused on helping underserved areas with a high incidence of diabetes in the United States. An additional grant will support the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child Programme for the organization’s work in Latin America. As a result of reaching 8,000 entries in the Big Blue Test, Diabetes Hands Foundation granted the following:

• $25,000 to International Diabetes Federation’s Life For a Child program.
• $10,000 to Moundville Medical Clinic, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
• $10,000 to LIFT For Teens/Walk and Play For Wellness in San Rafael, CA
• $10,000 to University of Colorado Denver
• $10,000 to St. Anthony Medical Clinic, St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco, CA
• $10,000 to Pecos Valley Medical Center, Inc. Pecos NM

“Because of these six extraordinary charities, thousands of people will have the insulin, supplies and care they need to survive,” said Manny Hernandez, founder of TuDiabetes and President of the Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF).  “I am honored and humbled for DHF and the partners that helped us in the Big Blue Test to have a role in something so important.”

DHF will also share the anonymized results submitted by people with diabetes with two academic research groups, to help us analyze the data and learn more from The Big Blue Test. For more details, visit www.BigBlueTest.org.

Franciscan Values III:

We believe we have a prophetic role to play in addressing the power structures of society, and seek to be advocates for and with people who are poor, disadvantaged & outcast.

“I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, quality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

These days there seems to be no lack of people in our society seeking justice.  Tea Party & Wall Street protesters seeking reform from government or big business interests they perceive as threats to the American way of life have peppered the news for months.  To us the issues of injustice in America and in San Francisco have a more personal face that we see all the time.  Every day St. Anthony Foundation feeds, clothes, and offers medical treatment to thousands of our city’s disenfranchised citizens.

Here at the Father Alfred Center we open our doors to men of no means that are suffering from the deadly disease of addiction.  Many have found themselves in unsustainable situations and lifestyles from which they are unable to break free.  While here, they are not given a free ride, but instead are asked to work hard for what they receive.  In exchange for their time and effort we offer them a new plan to live life on life’s terms.  They are shown a new way forward that will lead them to a better life, if only they are bold enough to accept it.

During this process these men are taught the value of responsibility and accountability.  They are taught to seek answers from a higher power, and not from a syringe, a pipe, or the bottom of a bottle.  With the skills they learn at Father Alfred Center our residents re-enter society, ready to work & ready to live life anew.  One at a time they change their society by helping those still in need as they themselves were helped.

Sadly some of our residents do not make it to the end.  They stray from the path and have to start over, or simply never recover in time to avoid the terminal consequences of their disease.  However for the brave and determined that prove themselves willing to overcome the obstacles in their path, there is salvation, there is recovery, there is justice.

“We work to be good stewards of all the gifts given to us.”

I believe that I can speak for all of us when I say that each of us at one point or another have found ourselves in dire need of help while in various stages of our common self-destructive disease (addiction).

While at the end of our proverbial ropes and sick to the bone in body and spirit, it seemed like there was no hope left in the world.  The shame and self debasement that permeates addiction had become all too familiar to us.  However, somehow we were eventually led to a place where hands and voices reached out in welcome instead of expectation.

Once there we were given everything; a place to rest; a place to eat; a place to bathe; a place to feel safe at last.  We were given an opportunity to heal and recover where we could not only live but learn how to live again.  We learned about new thoughts and behaviors and we learned how to apply them.  We gained insights about ourselves and others.  We were introduced to an entirely new lifestyle based on ‘we’ instead of ‘I’.  Before us was the journey along the road of recovery, and we were getting better one day at a time.

There was very little asked of us in return.  Follow simple instructions, do some work, and don’t put any illicit mind altering substances into our bodies.  Everything was leading us to work a program of recovery and to become responsible members of society.

Along with substance abuse treatment and individual counseling in a long term social model setting, we were provided with access to a variety of services, from all aspects of social work to access to the free clinic (including mental health/therapy, vision and dental care).

I was amazed by what was made available to me and others like me.  I remember we as clients often asked ourselves, “Who is making all of this possible?  Who is providing all these services for us?  Who is giving us this amazing opportunity?  Who are these people?”

Today we are ‘these people’.

-Anonymous staff member of Father Alfred Center

Sign up by yourself, come with your family (children must be at least 13), come with your church group or social club, come with a group of your co-workers. (But do sign up. We can’t accommodate surprise volunteers.)

Your group doesn’t need to be 40 people. It can join a group of groups to serve meals, pour water, and pick up trays for two and a half hours, after a crucial orientation.

If you’ve never volunteered at St. Anthony’s, this is rare a chance to get a feeling for what it’s like, scope out how it would work for a team from your organization or company, or decide if you’d like to be a regular, without waiting for the next orientation.

Call Dolores at 415-592-2704.
Call Celina 415-592-2728.

It’s an experience like no other. Give us a call if you can.

The San Francisco Business Times launched the new awards to honor professionals who go above and beyond to make the Bay Area healthier by delivering quality care, advocating for patients, innovating new technology or educating the community about health issues.

Dr. Ana was recognized for increasing healthcare access to the underserved. Interestingly enough, one of her achievements that most interested her healthcare peers was synchronizing St. Anthony’s electronic medical records with the coding system at San Francisco General Hospital. This made St. Anthony’s the city’s first low-income clinic to do so. It sounds technical, but coordinating with SF General means that all the doctors who serve a low-income patient have the same information. A more complete history means better care and more possibility for progress.

The magazine also cited the brand new breast health program Dr. Ana has started in the Clinic, based on an outreach model she created for diabetes patients and later for asthma patients. All three programs help patients who have a hard time keeping up with their healthcare come into the Clinic, check on progress, and make a plan for managing disease.

St. Anthony’s Executive Director and Clinic patients had good things to say about Dr. Valdes.

“It’s that combination of inherent compassion and leadership that helped Ana create a cutting-edge model for our clinic,” said Shari Roeseler, St. Anthony’s Executive Director.

Ramon Maciel, a 60-year-old diabetic patient of Dr. Valdes’ , said: “She’s the best doctor I’ve ever known.”

All of us at St. Anthony’s congratulate, and thank, Dr. Ana Valdes for the amazing things she’s done in the Clinic.

To see the whole story, go to the San Francisco Business Times web site: www.bizjournals.com

British Medical Journal The Lancet published an article this week on the relative health benefits of daily low (15 min. per day), moderate (30 min. per day), and high (45 min per day) volume of exercise. Results showed that even those in the low volume group (exercising an average of 92 minutes per week, or 15 minutes per day) “had a 14% reduced risk of all-cause mortality, and had a 3 year longer life expectancy.”

Even low levels of activity, can reduce blood pressure, and improve cardiovascular fitness and overall health. The Walking Group at St. Anthony’s Free Medical Clinic has experienced the benefits of low to moderate intensity exercise first hand. Every Friday at 10:00 a.m. the Walking Group, led by Carolina Flamenco, convenes at the Clinic and heads out for a 60-90 minute walk. These walks provide participants, many of whom are diabetic, not only with much-needed exercise and stress relief, but also with a chance to socialize in a relaxed environment, a chance to get out of the neighborhood and see other parts of the city, and to reconnect with the natural environment in the city’s parks.

During group walks, Carolina engages participants in conversations about their nutritional choices and encourages participants to reflect on how the incorporation of exercise has changed the way they are thinking about food and health. Several of the walkers have noted that because walking makes them feel better and less stressed-out, they are making healthier choices about the food they eat. As a result they have noticed an improvement in their diabetic symptoms. (One participant has lost 25 pounds since joining the Walking Group nine months ago!) On the other hand, some participants have noted that when they miss their walks for a couple of weeks they tend to revert to more convenient, less nourishing meals. Both kinds of experiences can provide valuable information to consider when making daily choices about nutrition and exercise.

As a natural outgrowth of the program, Carolina has incorporated visits to produce markets as a kind of “on-site nutritional counseling” component. Recently, front office supervisor Martha Salazar took the group on a food shopping trip to Mi Tierra in the Mission, which supports the program by providing produce vouchers for regular participants. The Walking Group receives additional sponsorship from Sports Basement in the form of t-shirts and water bottles; plans for tennis shoes are in the works.

Sean Chester, a summer intern who spent a lot of time volunteering in the Dining Room as well as some of St. Anthony’s other programs, remembers “my work in the Dining Room included being a bus boy, serving food, directing servers, and eating food. Among all the work and action, I made an infinite amount of friends that inspire me, believe in me, and respect me. I soaked up the experience, embraced the memories, and had such an amazing time.” Theresa Martin, another intern who spent one day/week volunteering in the Dining Room said “The relationships I’ve formed with the guests in the Dining Room, the volunteers and guys from the [Fr. Alfred Center, St. Anthony’s Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Program], and the other interns have been awesome. I feel like I have been welcomed into the community at St. Anthony’s and become a part of the family that it is. For that, I am grateful.” Much like Sean and Theresa, our volunteers often get more out of the experience than they gave. They find themselves embraced by the community here at St. Anthony’s, and quickly feel like they are part of the family.

So we would like to thank all of our volunteers, whether you have been here once or one thousand times. Your work has left a lasting mark on our Dining Room and the thousands of guests who call it their home.

If you or your group (school, company, church, club, etc.) are interested in volunteering, click here.