Easterseals held a grand opening ceremony for their new clinic in Pell City on Monday. The location will provide care for those without insurance.

Over the past eight months, David Higgins, Executive Director of Easterseals, has been working with the City of Pell City, Jefferson State Community College, the Ida Moffett School of Nursing at Samford University and local businesses and volunteers to open the clinic to serve the community.  The new location is at 205 Edwin Holladay Place in Pell City which also houses the Christian Love Pantry and Community Action of Central Alabama.

Volunteers from Jefferson State Community College and others painted walls, installed new tile flooring, and arranged medical equipment and decorative items, all of which were donated.

“We are glad to be a part of the community,” Higgins said. “It is our work to care for people and we were put here to heal.”

According to the 2017 Census information, approximately 12,000 people in St. Clair County do not have health insurance. The new clinic will serve people ages 19-64 and there was a large need for the area, Higgins stated.

St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital has been a supporter of the program, donating office and medical supplies. The program will also benefit from the Jefferson State School of Nursing with Dr. Cristy Daffron involved. All medical personnel are volunteers from local hospitals, clinics, and nursing schools such as the one at Jefferson State Community College or the Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing at Samford University.

Annette Hess, PhD, FNP-BC, CNS Associate Professor at Samford University Ida Moffett School of Nursing will be volunteering her time and experience to help in the clinic. Samford students in the Nurse Practitioner and Pharmacy School will be doing clinical rotations at the new location.  Nursing students from Jefferson State Community College will also be doing rotations.

“We want to be a support system for a lot of people that come through here that don’t get it elsewhere,” Hess said.

Hess became involved with the clinic after hearing about it through Debbie Duke, a registered nurse and volunteer Faith Community Nurse with Samford University.

“We want to treat the body and soul, the ‘wholistic’—whole person,” Duke said. “We are here where they are.”

The clinic will not only provide physical treatment, but emotional and spiritual as well. They will offer classes on healthy eating, exercise, and chronic disease management.

Duke said each area will be specified with a different name: Faith, Hope, and Love will be exam rooms; Joy is the transitional care room to speak of spiritual and counseling matters; Peace is the in-take room, and Healing is the medical provider area.

“We want to show that our patients have value, they have worth and they have something to offer,” Higgins said. “We want to offer these folks the same kind of experience if they went anywhere else.”

While this is not a free clinic, each visit will be an average of $10-$20. 

“We want to treat people with dignity and get them in the mindset of wellness and prevention,” Higgins said.

Easterseals offers services to over one million people of all ages with a variety of disabilities worldwide.  Easterseals works with a network of 73 communities nationwide and international partners in Australia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Canada to offer home and community-based services that they categorize into five support areas: Live, Learn, Work, and Play. 

Higgins hopes to expand services at the Pell City location to include dental care, mental health care, and partnering with UAB and local hospitals for specialists services. They currently have a 7500 square foot pediatric outpatient clinic in Springville, where their ten therapists offer speech therapy to children.

The clinic will be open Monday through Thursday by appointment. Call 205-338-4806 or visit eastersealsbham.org.