Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Visits White Bird Clinic’s Vaccine Site

Emhoff Highlights White Bird’s Vaccination Equity Efforts

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EUGENE, OREGON – Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Governor Kate Brown, and Representative Peter DeFazio visited White Bird’s vaccination clinic to learn about the agency’s work advancing COVID-19 vaccination equity by forming innovative partnerships with community-based organizations.

With strong support from the Biden-Harris administration’s Health Center Vaccine Program and funding from the American Rescue Act, federally qualified health centers such as White Bird Clinic are on the front lines of promoting vaccine equity. Oregon’s 34 FQHC’s care for almost half a million patients and serve as the cornerstone of the regional healthcare system, providing care for underserved communities, including communities of color. White Bird has vaccinated more than 2,500 people, approximately 40% of whom identify as non-white, in a state that is 75% white. In partnership with organizations serving communities of color, White Bird will operate mobile vaccination clinics that meet people where they are at, in order to reduce disparities in health and healthcare.

The community organizations will develop culturally appropriate messaging and implement outreach strategies that best reach their constituents, then sponsor easily accessible vaccination clinics. White Bird will bring its mobile medical unit to each site and provide vaccine and the clinical staff that will administer it and then monitor recipients post-inoculation.

The federal Health Center Vaccine Program provides White Bird with a direct supply of all three vaccines and the American Rescue Act’s allocation of $7.6B to Health Centers includes funding for vaccination initiatives such as White Bird’s. “The Biden-Harris administration’s philosophical and financial support for vaccination equity is the wind behind our sails in our effort to ensure that no one misses the opportunity to be vaccinated,” said Chris Hecht, Executive Coordinator.

Nationally, the vaccination rate of BIPOC individuals is roughly half that of whites. The Biden-Harris administration’s priority to reduce disparities in the uptake of COVID-19 vaccines will mitigate the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color and reduce health and healthcare disparities. Achieving high vaccination rates across individuals and communities is essential to achieving broader population immunity.

The entire community is working together to make this project a success. Nurses, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other medically-trained community members volunteer to administer vaccines. Project partners including Centro Latino Americano, Downtown Languages, St. Mark CME church, Huerto de la Familia, and 8:46 Justice Today are mobilizing their constituents and promoting vaccination. The Community Center for the Performing Arts/WOW Hall provides their music venue as a facility. Support for the project is provided by PeaceHealth, Pacific Source, and the Lane Community Health Council.

https://www.facebook.com/KLCCOregon/posts/10158263867506033

White Bird Clinic is one of Nine Oregon Health Centers to Join Federal Vaccine Program

Oregon’s U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today that clinics in Portland, Oregon City, Grants Pass, Eugene, Tillamook, Prineville and Medford will be invited to join the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program over the next six weeks. The nine clinics join Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, the Neighborhood Health Center in Portland, Multnomah, and Lane counties in the program.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched this vaccine program to directly allocate COVID-19 vaccine to HRSA-supported health centers to ensure underserved communities and those disproportionately affected by COVID-19 are equitably vaccinated.

“Getting as many Oregonians vaccinated as soon as possible saves lives and gets our state and country that much closer to emerging from this public health and economic crisis,” said Wyden, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee. “A painful lesson after one year of battling coronavirus is how the virus lands especially hard on low-income Oregonians in communities of color, tribal communities and rural communities. Today’s news is a real shot in the arm to help all those communities.”

“We know that getting as many vaccines into arms as quickly as possible is key to save lives and end this pandemic,” said Merkley. “We need to do everything we can to make that happen, including ensuring that our rural, tribal, and low-income communities—who have faced unique challenges and in many ways felt the brunt of the coronavirus crisis—aren’t left out. I’m grateful that these health centers are joining this powerful vaccine program, and will continue to work to bring vaccines to underserved Oregonians in every corner of our state.”

HRSA-funded health centers are community-based and patient-centered organizations that deliver affordable, accessible, quality, and cost-effective primary health care. Nationwide, nearly 1,400 centers operate about 13,000 sites, providing primary and preventive care on a sliding fee scale to nearly 30 million patients each year. More than 91 percent of health center patients are individuals or families living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines and nearly 63 percent are racial/ethnic minorities. Health centers across the nation are playing vital roles in supporting local community responses to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Prior to today, 250 health centers were invited to this program, and include those that serve a large volume of the following: disproportionately affected populations: individuals experiencing homelessness, public housing residents, migrant/seasonal agricultural workers, or patients with limited English proficiency.

Today, an additional 700 health centers were invited to participate in the next phase of the program and include those that serve high proportions of patients living with low income and from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, provide services to rural/frontier populations, operate Tribal/Urban Indian Health Programs, and/or use mobile vans to deliver services.

  • A list of the health centers participating in or invited to join the program is here.
  • Read the full press release is here.

 

White Bird Partners with the WOW Hall for COVID-19 Vaccination Program

EUGENE, OREGON – White Bird Clinic is partnering with the Community Center for the Performing Arts/WOW Hall to offer COVID-19 vaccinations. A team of volunteers will allow White Bird to vaccinate up to 800 people each week.

White Bird has opened a vaccination clinic at the WOW Hall in order to scale up vaccinations and offer an accessible indoor space in downtown Eugene. Nurses, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other medically-trained community members have volunteered to administer vaccines, and volunteer clerical staff keep the operation running smoothly. White Bird staff coordinate the effort. The CCPA is providing the facility below cost because its new board agreed unanimously that this was the best possible use of the facility during this time of crisis.

A month ago White Bird began vaccinating health care professionals. In support of Lane County Public Health, White Bird is now vaccinating all individuals who are eligible according to the CDC. As a vital resource for Eugene and Springfield for more than fifty years, White Bird demonstrates how Community Health Centers are the cornerstone of the regional healthcare system.

To learn more and register for vaccination visit https://whitebirdclinic.org/vaccine or call 541-246-2341.

This crucial effort is only possible because volunteers are willing to give their time and expertise to help fellow community members. In addition to medical staff, the project needs greeters and all sorts of other help. Folks who would like to volunteer can visit http://bit.ly/wbc-volunteer to sign up.

The WOW Hall, located at 291 W. 8th Ave., is operated by the Community Center for the Performing Arts, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing cultural arts and educational opportunities for all ages and income levels and maintaining a supportive environment for local artists and their new creative efforts.

Staff at the WOW Hall and White Bird’s main offices and medical clinic do not have information on the vaccination project, and White Bird asks folks to kindly not interrupt their ongoing work providing care for our community.

In 1969, a group of student activists and concerned practitioners came together to provide crisis services and free medical care for counter-culture youth in Eugene, OR. Having grown continuously since then, today White Bird Clinic has 10 programs, 220 staff members, and more than 400 volunteers each year.

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White Bird is Vaccinating the Community

White Bird Clinic is continuing to assist with Lane County Public Health’s COVID-19 vaccination effort. 

Bivalent Boosters (Moderna & Pfizer) are available to people 18 years or older on a limited basis at the White Bird Medical Clinic at 1400 Mill Street in Eugene.
Monday (9–11a.m.), Wednesday (1–3 p.m.) and Friday (3–5 p.m.)
Please bring your vaccination cards to be updated.
White Bird is committed to advancing vaccination equity in Lane County.

Book a vaccination clinic for your community!

Please contact our partners at the Lane Community Health Clinic to set up an outreach clinic. Please contact Adria Godom-Bynum or call 458-240-7152.

Información en Español

Who is eligible for the vaccine?
If you are 12 or older, you’re eligible!
We are currently using Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
1st, 2nd and Boosters!

How can I volunteer to help?

This crucial effort is only possible because volunteers are willing to give their time and expertise to help fellow community members. In addition to medical staff, the project needs greeters and all sorts of other help.

Click here to sign up to volunteer

More Information / Información en Español

$100K grant awarded for a COVID-19 Care Center

White Bird Medical Clinic has partnered with Kaiser Permanente to develop a safe, COVID-19 screening and testing center for Lane County’s unhoused populations. The screening center will be located in White Bird’s primary care walk-in clinic, with construction planned to start February 2021. The new primary care walk-in clinic will offer on-demand acute care to our community’s most vulnerable residents. Without access to walk-in primary care, patients utilize emergency room treatment for acute but not emergent problems, reducing the availability of treatment for life-threatening emergencies.

In addition, treatment at an emergency room is at least five times more costly than a primary care encounter. With ambulance transport, emergency treatment becomes an order of magnitude more expensive than primary care. These dramatically increased costs, along with reduced availability of treatment for life-threatening emergencies, constitute a crisis for our community and the institutions that provide and fund health care. With your help we will continue preventing unnecessary emergency room treatment and subsequent hospital admissions and preserve healthcare system capacity essential for accommodating an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

When complete, the new facility will allow White Bird to quickly identify and respond to emerging health care needs, preventing the infection and spread of COVID-19 in people experiencing homelessness through symptom monitoring, screening, and testing. It will also enhance White Bird’s work coordinating care for the local population of unhoused individuals, strengthen partnerships with referring agencies and organizations, and support coordinating community efforts to suppress COVID-19. An additional benefit will be the capacity to conduct point of care testing for dental clinic patients, in order to keep dental staff safe and improve access to oral health care.

Also See:

White Bird Clinic to construct screening and testing center for unhoused – Register-Guard, November 2020

Mental Health Resources During COVID-19

Looking for our COVID-19 community resource page? We moved it over here.

As leaders on the frontlines of mental illness and substance abuse disorder treatment, we know how difficult it can be to cope with the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 amidst the loss of familiar resources. Fear and anxiety about a disease can be overwhelming and cause strong emotions. Coping with stress will make you, the people you care about, and your community stronger.

People with preexisting mental health conditions should continue with their treatment and be aware of new or worsening symptoms. The White Bird Crisis line will continue to be accessible 24/7 by phone at (541) 687-4000. For an in-person response, CAHOOTS continues to operate 24/7 at this time, if you are in Eugene please call (541) 682-5111, for those in Springfield please call (541) 726-3714.

Telehealth

Telehealth appointments are available for both new and returning Counseling and Chrysalis clients. Intake forms for new clients are now available online.

Online Support Groups

AA   NA   GA

7 Cups: www.7cups.com Free online text chat with a trained listener for emotional support and counseling. Also offers fee for-service online therapy with a licensed mental health professional. Service/website also offered in Spanish.

Emotions Anonymous: www.emotionsanonymous.org An international fellowship of people who desire to have a better sense of emotional well-being. EA members have in person and online weekly meetings available in more than 30 countries with 600 active groups worldwide. The EA is nonprofessional resource and cannot be a replacement to therapy.

Support Group Central: www.supportgroupscentral.com Offers virtual support groups on numerous mental health conditions – free or low-cost. Website also offered in Spanish.

The Tribe Wellness Community: www.support.therapytribe.com Free, online peer support groups which is tailored to members who are facing mental health challenges and/or difficult family dynamics. Support groups include Addiction, Anxiety, Depression, HIV/AIDS, LGBT, Marriage/Family, OCD and Teens.

For Like Minds: www.forlikeminds.com Online mental health support network that allows for individuals to connect with others who are living with or supporting someone with mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and stressful life events.

Guidebooks & Tip Sheets

The NAMI HelpLine Coronavirus Information and Resources Guide may be helpful if you have questions or concerns.

SAMHSA’s Tips for Social Distancing, Quarantine, and Isolation tip sheet describes feelings and thoughts you may have during and after social distancing, quarantine, and isolation. It also suggests ways to care for your behavioral health during these experiences and provides resources for more help.

Text/Chat

News about the coronavirus can increase feelings of anxiety. If you’re struggling, text Mental Heath First Aid to 741-741 to talk to a CrisisTextLine counselor.