Western Wayne Family Health Centers (WWFHC) held a delayed-by-pandemic grand opening of their Dearborn health center location this week. Among those in attendance were Congresswomen Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib, County Commissioner Sam Baydoun and representatives of WWFHCs partner agencies.

The center, located at 4700 Schaefer, offers primary care for newborns to seniors, OB/GYN and medically assisted treatment of opiate addiction. It officially was open for business in January 2020, and has been gaining new patients for all its services. The organization's other locations in Inkster, Taylor and Lincoln Park offer the same services plus dental care. WWFHC is a "federally qualified health center", which are placed in areas where there is a low ratio of health care services available to people who are uninsured and underinsured (covered by Medicaid, Healthy Michigan Plan or traditional Medicare). A sliding fee scale based on income is used for those without insurance, so care can be quite reasonable-with copays starting at $20 for an office visit.

Part of the mission of a community health center is to offer care to all, and to meet the needs of the communities it serves. The past year has been no exception. COVID19 has dominated the health care landscape, and WWFHC rose to the challenge of getting people tested and vaccinated. At the event, the 2021 Community Health Champion Award winners were recognized. Gina Wilson Steward of River Rouge, Donald Agee Jr. from Ecorse and Melvindale/Northern Allen Park school district nurse Holly Sworst RN were given their awards by WWFHC Chief Operating Officer Guadalupe Vivanco and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. These grassroots leaders partnered with the health center early in the pandemic to bring COVID19 testing to their neighborhoods and used their credibility and reputation to get people to get tested. Offering these testing sites in easy to access places like party store parking lots, schools and city parks made it easy for people to get tested. These grassroots heroes did the organizing, set up, traffic control, helped people fill out forms and everything that needed to be done to get services to residents who may otherwise have been ignored. As time went on, these effort transitioned to getting people vaccinated.

"We knew that options for underserved people were limited in East Dearborn, and wanted to expand our services there", said Linda Atkins, CEO. "The 48126 area was identified as a hot sport by HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) and when there was an opportunity to apply for the federal funding to open a FQHC site there, we jumped on it. Luckily, we were successful in getting the grant to open this center." The mix of people in the area makes it very diverse as well, with many residents having multiple barriers to getting preventive and primary care. People who don't qualify for Medicaid due to citizenship status, lower income families, people who want a doctor who has an office in their neighborhood all can be seen at WWFHC.

WWFHC CEO Linda Atkins gives remarks during opening program

Rep. Debbie Dingell applauded WWFHC for being there for the people who need health care that is affordable, comprehensive and high-quality. "I love these people and happy to be here to celebrate this new center with them. Community health centers are the closest thing we have for fully accessible care now in the US-serving over 29 million people in this country", said Dingell.

The Dearborn center is open Monday through Friday, by appointment and walk in as available. The center can be reached by calling 313-561-5100. Most insurance plans accepted, including all state Medicaid plans, and a sliding fee scale based on income is used for people without coverage.