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Marin City CSD to Create Health and Wellness Clinic

January 27, 2006

By Everett Brandon

The dream of creating a health and wellness center in Marin City has been shared by a number of key people in the community. Their efforts have resulted in the planning and initial development of the Marin City Health and Wellness Clinic, located in the West wing of the Manzanita Recreation Center, the main building of the Marin City Community Services District (MCCSD).

Once the clinic is open, “residents of the District and the Southern Marin area will be able to get outpatient services for their personal and family needs where it is convenient,” commented Terrie Harris-Green, Vice President of the Board of the MCCSD, and Chair of the Health Committee. In 2005, the Circle of Men completed the basic renovation of the space with help from local volunteers. Recently the Kaiser Health Foundation has contributed $50,000 to bring the space up to Kaiser’s specifications. An automated door and other building code requirements will be added.

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey toured the Health and Wellness Clinic on January 26 immediately after her meeting with the MCCSD board about securing funds for the Marin City Center project. She will take the clinic under consideration as part of her efforts to secure federal funding for redeveloping the MCCSD property.

Also attending that meeting was Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who has led the effort for the County to provide funding of $200,000 for operating the clinic. This two-year grant is expected to be a magnet for other funding sources. With in-kind services, the cost to run the clinic is budgeted at approximately $500,000 per year.

April 2006 is the target date that the clinic should be ready to take its first patients. This “medical model” clinic will be a place where local residents can get both primary and preventive health services.

The facility will offer screening and evaluation, health care, referral and case management as well as an overall community health strategy. When it opens, the Clinic will provide twelve hours a week of drop-in and appointment clinical services. The dream is to have a center that will be open on a full-time basis.

Staffing will consist of a mix and volunteer and agency in-kind staff. For instance, the Community Mental Health Department has already allocated personnel to provide youth and teen services. Other staff will include providers (MD/NP/PA), registered nurses, medical case managers and a health director.

Until a health director is hired and a governing board put in place, the project will be under the auspices of the MCCSD. As Chair of the MCCSD Health Committee, Terrie Harris-Greene has been the driving force behind the Clinic coming into being. It has been her tenacity and commitment to the project that has resulted in what she feels is going to be a landmark development in and for Marin City.

Harris-Green's commitment is to provide medical services to residents in Southern Marin and build friendly relations in the pursuit of personal health and wellness. She believes that personal good health is the key to building the finest Marin City possible. For her, the implementation of the Health and Wellness Clinic will make this vision a reality.