The Austin Family Health Center on Lake Street is expected to open its doors to patients on Monday to provide a wide variety of health services to the Austin community.
The healthcare nonprofit PCC Community Wellness Center built the new, state-of-the-art facility.
“From the moment that our first patient walks through the door on Monday morning, throughout their entire experience through the entire facility, our goal is to address the whole person, body, mind and spirit,” said President and CEO of PCC Community Wellness Center, Alyssa Sianghio at the ribbon cutting Thursday.
The facility will offer services that include primary care, diabetes and chronic disease management, substance abuse treatment and mental health services. There are also a number of spaces dedicated to promote healthy lifestyles, including a wellness center, a test kitchen to teach residents about healthy diets, and a classroom for education and events.
“This is a space for the community and affords us an opportunity to continue to listen, to continue to grow and ask the community what they need,” Sianghio said. “There are so many ways that we can change our health more than just in the exam room, more than just with medication, but with our lifestyle choices.”
The facility will offer a full spectrum of family care, from pregnancy to infants, pediatrics, adult medicine and geriatric care.
Many speaking at Thursday’s event stressed the importance of this facility being on the West Side, with the life expectancy gap between the West Side of Chicago and downtown being a 14-year difference.
“We didn’t want our patients in the Austin community to have to go downtown or to even leave a neighborhood, to receive quality specialty care. And that was the vision behind this facility,” said chairperson Ronald Austin Jr.
Alderwoman Emma Mitts, whose 37th Ward resides on the West Side, stressed the importance of this space being accessible.
“The hope is that it’s accessible enough for one to not have to linger with their health care. That they should come in and try to expand their life expectancy and not just go without, because you have no reason to,” Mitts said. “To have one right here in a neighborhood of low-income people who can’t afford to get health care, there is no excuse now.”
Patients can receive care despite their financial situation.
“When I tell people they can go to a federally qualified health center and not have to pay any money if they don’t have any, they can do that,” said U.S. Congressman Danny K. Davis.
The health center is a collaboration between Cook County Land Bank Authority, PCC Wellness and the City of Chicago, and cost $19.5 million with more than half the funding from the PCC Foundation and support from the New Markets Tax Credit program.
The 36,000 square foot, three story building is WELL-certified and strives to reduce energy and water consumption. The facility is many years in the making, with PCC first purchasing the land for the facility in 2020.
The registration center will be named the “Emma Mitts Primary Care Registration Center” in honor of Ald. Mitts and conference room will be called “The Robert J. Urso Conference Room” in honor of Robert J. Urso, PCC Wellness’ former President and CEO.
Also at the event was Cha Juana Calhoun, a West Side resident who shared her story of being diagnosed with diabetes. After connecting with nurse Nancy Rodriguez, who will be working in the diabetes management program at the center, Calhoun changed her diet and with Rodriguez’s guidance and motivation, Calhoun was able to reverse her diabetes to being classified as prediabetes.
“No one ever told me that you could reverse diabetes. But Nancy encouraged me. She inspired me. She changed my life,” said Calhoun. “This program works, I’m living proof.”
The facility is located at 5461 W. Lake Street.