Shifa Clinic provides basic health care services with special attention to patients with language difficulties. This includes patients speaking Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Arabic, Bengali, Fijian, Farsi, Bosnian, and Russian. The services include but not are limited to basic health care, health screening, and health education and patient advocacy. These services are delivered in an atmosphere appropriate to the needs of the community in a multilingual and multicultural setting. While we realize that provision of these basic services is not a long-term solution to the health care problems of our community, we feel it is a proper first step towards improving the current health care delivery system.

 

A second goal of the clinic is to provide the public with role models of this community as present health care professionals. The historical recycling of upper middle class Anglo-American in the medical field has lead to many of the health care problems in our community even to those members who can provide some health care coverage for themselves. We feel an important psychological step will be taken when our patients realize that there are such things like health care workers from their community and health care can be for them too. In particular this can be of particular importance to the promotion of higher education for the youth in this community.

 

Students from UC Davis and community volunteers are given an opportunity to maintain contact with the underserved community in Sacramento while receiving their training. The clinic serves as an environment in which we can develop sensitivity towards the needs of these people, by encouraging students to return to serve these communities. Thus, we are taking steps for the present and the future needs of the communities.