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Services: Agape Clinic and Baylor Community Care

The Agape Clinic and Primary Care Services

Agape was founded in 1983. Agape's primary partner in community health, Baylor Community Care, started in 1991, but was originally based on work begun in 1981. Please see Concepts pages for more history.

Services are available Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (schedule below) in the community and at Grace United Methodist Church, 4105 Junius @ Haskell. Services are dedicated to the Glory of God. Photo: Volunteer & children

There are a number of free clinics doing wonderful work in the Dallas area. What makes Agape unique (locally and nationally) is the integration of comprehensive services in a medically underserved community, at a very low cost. Services include primary medical care, immunizations, spiritual care, community health care, social services, professional education, and community development.

Primary Medical Care
The heart of all Agape services (and the means by which patients and community become involved in preventive and other health-oriented services) is primary care for people who are sick (more than 5000 each year). Care includes medications, the average retail cost of which is $45.00/patient. Services are delivered by volunteer physicians, nurse practitioners, and students from Baylor, UT Southwestern, and other schools. Health problems treated at Agape include acute illnesses such as pharyngitis, urinary tract infections, and common skin disorders. Chronic health problems treated at Agape include asthma, hypertension, and diabetes. In addition to treating the more common primary care problems we provide specialty care, including pediatrics, dermatology, psychiatry, and women’s health.

Immunizations
Agape is the only site in Dallas providing immunizations on Saturdays year-round. This matters – a lot – because Texas ranks 46th in national immunization rates and Dallas is ranked even lower than Texas as a whole.

Spiritual Care
Spiritual or partially spiritual crises identified and treated at Agape include family violence, poverty, injustice, isolation and a host of other chronic stressors. Through Agape’s partner, Creations of Faith, patients find a safe place for fellowship, prayer, Bible study, and therapy. In addition to care provided through Creations, Agape staff and volunteers pray with patients and give other spiritual care. Photo: Waiting for the clinic to open

Community Health
In 2005 Agape has held four mammogram and other (hypertension, diabetes, asthma, etc.) screening events and is scheduled for a childhood vaccination and screening event. Screening is coupled with health teaching and all patients with positive findings receive follow-up. Through Agape’s partner, Baylor School of Nursing, weekly health-related classes are provided for parents at Zaragoza and Lipscomb Elementary Schools (both are near Agape), as well as health classes for DISD students. Baylor students and promotoras also follow-up on complex patients and provide outreach to more isolated patients. Community partners such as Concilio Dallas offer weekly classes on diabetic self care and how to access CHIP and Medicaid. Also see proposed project.

Social Services
The health problems of many of Agape’s patients are worsened or complicated by a variety of other issues. From teaching people how to use private insurance to assisting people into the healthcare system, patient advocacy and assistance are key aspects of care at Agape.

Professional Education
Agape is a training/clinical and service-learning site for students from Baylor, University of Texas at Arlington, Texas Women’s University, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas Theological Seminary, and other institutions.

Community Development
The recent grant awarded by the Dallas Women’s Foundation brings to fruition ongoing work at Agape to advance the health of the community through community empowerment. Agape has a history of recruiting volunteers from the community served by the clinic (the community served thus becomes the community of solution). The Women’s Foundation grant allows us to train promotoras salud (lay health promoters) from the community to teach and assist patients in the clinic and the community. Also see proposed project. Photo: Waiting room on a Thursday - Leslie & Maria working on resources; Roxanne & Lupe talking to patients

Community Partners
Providing comprehensive care such as outlined above requires extraordinary cooperation among different organizations. Agape approaches relationships with other organizations from a working perspective (vs. endless meetings, networking, dialoging, and the like). Community partners include:

A number of other organizations and individuals participate in the life of Agape.

In 2004 we provided care in the community as shown below. The value column is based on a community standard cost of care.

Activity
Patients served
Value
Totals
Medical care for illness
5384
$60
$323,040
Medications provided
5124
$45
$230,580
Immunizations
1140
$55
$62,700
Follow-up & home visits
308
$50
$15,400
Social work or chaplain care
434
$55
$23,870
Mammograms
114
$150
$17,100

The conservative value of traceable services provided in 2004 was $672,690. Expenditures were right at $100,000. Many services are difficult to quantify (and are thus not included in the traceable figures above), e.g., health screening events (five in 2004), diabetes classes, parent classes, and CHIP/Medicaid assistance. Volunteer hours are also difficult to quantify and we did not track them every week. Still, the conservative estimates of volunteer hours serving patients are as follows: Lay volunteers gave at least 2,500 hours. Physicians, nurse practitioners, and RNs gave more than 1,200 hours. Students from Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing Community Care program and from other schools made enormous contribution to the clinic and community. Photo: Outreach at community garden
Click here for volunteer information.

Clinic Days/Hours (children & adults - always important to arrive early)

 

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