By Samantha Stahl
Originally published in Playa Vista Magazine

Fifty-four years ago, Drs. Philip Rossman and Mayer B. Davidson started a clinic with volunteer doctors in a UCLA dental office on Lincoln Boulevard, seeing patients after the center’s business hours.

The mission was simple: offer health care services for the entire person and family; an accessible model for community care.

This evolved into Venice Family Clinic, a nonprofit health center that provides medical services to over 45,000 marginalized and underserved people. Venice Family Clinic CEO Dr. Mitesh Popat said he believes that health care is a human right.

“We’re committed to safeguarding public health and the communities we serve,” Popat said. “We take care of people who are at the margins of society. Health care services are critically important for people to be healthy, to be well, to achieve and to accomplish their goals in life.”

Approachability and locality are the keys for community health and caring for the underserved like the Venice Family Clinic. To that end, it has expanded to 20 clinical locations across Los Angeles to treat patients from the Santa Monica Mountains to South Bay to inland communities such as Inglewood and Hawthorne.

“That is the aspiration for the clinic — that people aren’t left out for lack of physical access to a building or location,” he said. “We are based in local communities close to people, and we’re not an ivory tower. We’re the opposite of that.”

In addition to multiple locations, the clinic breaks down barriers that may still prevent potential clients from accessing the medical care they need. About 97% of patients live at 200% of the federal poverty level or below. The organization provides bus tokens and vouchers, and partners with Uber and Medical to transport clients to appointments. Some clients don’t have paid time off opportunities, so services may be offered during nontraditional hours to limit lost compensation.

The clinic provides primary care along with a host of specialty care options such as prescriptions, mental health, dental and vision. It also provides an extensive array of programming outside of what one may think of as strictly medical care, such as domestic violence counseling, HIV services, education, child development and health insurance enrollment.

More programming includes an Early Head Start program to provide child care and education to children aged 0 to 3 and pregnant mothers to support low-income families. Branches also distribute healthy food in conjunction with partner organization Food Forward and provide nutrition education for over 50% of patients who are food insecure. Free food ensures that struggling individuals need not choose between eating a healthy meal or affording necessary goods like medications.

Furthermore, the clinic deploys three mobile Street Medicine units into the community. Popat said that trust has been established between the clinic and people experiencing homelessness, and those in need are familiar with the services they provide. Sometimes, members of the health care team strap on backpacks and meet potential clients where they are, walking on foot around encampments or streets to find people who may need help.

“The crux of it is the clinic exists to ensure that everyone has access to health care, and no one is left behind,” he said.

Venice Family Clinic is expanding quickly. A new location in Torrance will address needs in the South Bay, with a focus on specialty care, such as podiatry and dermatology, as well as immediate care. A new location in South Inglewood will invest in the Early Head Start Program to provide children with early education and mental health services and job training for adults in computer programming and health care.

Despite investment in stadiums and entertainment development, Popat said South Inglewood has been historically underinvested. The Mar Vista clinic will soon serve more Westside Angelenos.
The entire city benefits when the community is cared for, Popat said.

“The broader impact on LA is that all of our neighbors — the people you bump into, people who are mowing lawns and cleaning houses and bagging groceries, people who may be in transition between employment, people who have come upon hard times — that they all have access to needed health care and have a right to be healthy and maybe improve their lives,” he said.

Last year, doctors at the clinic saw more than 182,000 patients. The city’s staggering need is overshadowed only by the incredible work of over 550 employees and 1100 volunteers who believe in health equity for all.

“We’re a labor of love,” Popat said. “It takes all of us loving on the clinic, loving on the work and loving on the community to try to make things better day by day, person by person.”