We were pleased to have Caitlin Denney, Executive Director at the Prince William Area Free Clinic join us at Image. We presented her with 962 pairs of socks and gloves collected by our Impact students and Community Groups through the Hands and Feet Collection Drive. Here's what she shared:
Thank you for having me here today and for everything Image Church has done for the Clinic over the years. It’s interesting, when you think about healthcare, you think about what happens in that room, with your doctor and getting the medications you need and going home and taking them correctly and then you get better. What people don’t often think about in healthcare are the other pieces that are so integrated into getting better, and becoming whole, and getting healthy and having your family that way. 30% of that is genetics, 10% is what we do at the Clinic, and the rest of it is individual behavior and environmental and social choices.
I’ve been told I can tell a quick story, because I can talk about stories about my clients for a long time. About two years ago, we had a gentleman come in who has Type 2 Diabetes and neuropathy. He has lack of feeling in his hands and feet and, unfortunately, lost his job as a contractor because of it and ended up homeless. He ended up in the middle of winter in the woods. He had injuries to his feet, and because of lack of feeling, he had no idea they were happening. And not thinking to check his feet, each time it froze, it got worse and the damage continued. He ended up in the hospital having to have a partial amputation.
What Image Church did today with these 900+ socks and gloves will help protect our population that is most vulnerable - those folks that are in the woods, those folks that are still looking for work, that are walking up and down, that don’t have transportation or can't afford the bus. Because of this, these folks will still have fully functioning feet and hands and be able to go out and do work.
I can’t express to you how much we are grateful for gifts like these and for what you’ve done over the years. Where we’ve had a health fair and you’ve helped with the children’s activities so the parents didn’t have to worry. Where you’ve provided transportation funds and food so people could come to attend our event and didn’t have to worry about attending and being able to feed their families. Everything that you and your congregation has done has been absolutely integral to making sure that our 2,145 clients are healthy every day, every year.
We don’t just provide acute care. We’re looking at long-term chronic illnesses. 90% of my clients have long term chronic illness. The great majority have two or more, with Type 2 Diabetes being the number one thing people are being diagnosed with. But a lot of times that rolls into hypertension, neuropathy, blindness, and kidney failure. We’re doing a lot of work about preventative care for them and their families - how should you eat and how should you cook. So we’re providing nutritional classes. We offer access to specialty care. We offer transportation so they can get to UVA to receive it. We provide a pharmacy for medications so they are accessible and affordable to them. We always look at a social work background. How can we meet that client one-on-one where they are at, and try to lift them to the next stage, and lift their family up to be fully healthy.
A portion of this year's One Gift offering will support the Prince William Area Free Clinic. We have made a difference through our donation of socks and gloves and are excited to see the impact we can make through financial support this year. Learn more and donate HERE.