AmeriCares Free Clinics Mobile Health Unit Heads To Louisiana For Katrina Relief

Stamford, CT, September 9 2005 – The AmeriCares Free Clinics mobile health unit is joining the Hurricane relief effort, departing from Stamford for Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Saturday, September 10, where it will provide basic healthcare services for hundreds of the displaced people living in temporary shelters over the next month.

The mobile health unit, which usually serves the uninsured working poor of Bridgeport as the AmeriCares Free Clinic of Bridgeport, will arrive in Baton Rouge on Monday, where it will be staffed with doctors from Louisiana State University supported by the nursing team of the AmeriCares Free Clinics. The mobile health unit will work out of a base at the LSU Medical Center Emergency Room but will travel to the nearby shelters to offer treatment to those in need, gearing its healthcare to those suffering with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension.

AmeriCares Free Clinic Executive Director Karen Gottlieb will coordinate the bus’ activities for the first week; followed by Barbara McCabe, director of the AmeriCares Free Clinic of Norwalk for the second week; Dina Valenti, director of the AmeriCares Free Clinic of Danbury for the third; and Cathy Sheehan, associate director of the AmeriCares Free Clinics for the final week. Bridgeport firefighter Charles Jones, who drives the mobile unit for AmeriCares Free Clinics, is taking two weeks’ vacation so that he can drive the bus to Louisiana and man it for the first half of the month.

“We are very pleased to be able to make this contribution to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort,” said Gottlieb. “Our response is only made possible by the generosity of St. Vincent’s Medical Center of Bridgeport, which has agreed to give us space to service our regular patients of the AmeriCares Free Clinic of Bridgeport.”

AmeriCares Free Clinics patients who have questions about their appointments can call 1-888-736-3435. AmeriCares Free Clinics’ mission is to provide free primary care to uninsured residents in Fairfield County. Since 1994, the clinics have provided more than $12 million in quality healthcare services at clinic locations in Bridgeport, Norwalk and Danbury.

AmeriCares Free Clinics is an AmeriCares program. The non-profit international disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization AmeriCares has sent aid valued at more than $1 million to those affected by Hurricane Katrina in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. AmeriCares emergency response teams are in Louisiana and Mississippi, coordinating relief efforts at the local level.

To support AmeriCares hurricane relief efforts, log onto sandbox.americares.org or call AmeriCares directly at 1-800-486-HELP (4357).