It’s Tuesday, and that means hosting as many as eighty guests for lunch at this historic church in downtown Charlottesville. The tables are set with white cloths and utensils, while volunteers carry plates of food, coffee and lemonade to those who need a free meal.
60-year-old Dennis Harden is among them. He used to do construction until his health gave out.
“I cut my foot and got an infection, and it got into my bloodstream, and I was in the hospital for three months," he recalls. "When I got out of the hospital every thing was fine for about three months, and then my back started killing me. The infection got into my bones and started eating my spine.”
He started drinking to ease the pain and forget his troubles.
“I passed out in my doorway. They took me to the hospital, and my alcohol level was so high that they kept me for 14 days. When I got out of the hospital, the hotel I was staying in had thrown all my stuff away.”
Today, he’s in a 12-step program, living in a sober group home and paying $145 a week for a room. Because he’s disabled, he gets a check from social security, but by the end of the month nothing is left for food or medicine. As he eats his lunch, Dr. Greg Gelbard stops to chat.
A retired family physician, Gelbard felt called to look after sick people, regardless of their financial situation.
“I carry my blood pressure cuff around and check blood pressures when they’ll let me,” he explains. “Sometimes I’ll just sit down and listen to stories."
Often he finds people have been to a doctor in the last five to ten years, but they haven’t had a physical or been tested for common, chronic diseases.
“Diabetes for sure. Hypertension for sure. Some have had cancers. They haven’t had them followed up. There are probably 50% who have some type of emotional issue – which could be schizophrenia, but many of them are anxious or depressed.”
And many have stopped taking medication that was prescribed to keep them healthy.
“Do you mind if I share with your daughter what’s up with your blood pressure?” he asks another lunch-time patient.
Permission is granted, and he tells the man’s daughter, “It’s 159 over 99. He’s not going to have a stroke any time soon, but he ought to be taking his medicine.”
He also urges these impromptu patients to see a primary care doctor on a regular basis – to visit the free clinic or a practice at UVA, but already some are feeling better – just knowing someone cares.
“I love Dr. Greg. He just looked out for me since Day One,” Harden says.
Meanwhile, merchants on the downtown mall – just a few blocks away – complain about people who have taken up residence with shopping carts, sleeping bags and other possessions, and healthcare professionals like Greg Gelbard worry that the homeless population will grow as spending for Medicaid and other programs that form the nation’s social safety net is cut.
“They come into their doctor, they come into the hospital, and the staff will say, ‘I’m sorry Ma’am, I’m sorry, Sir, but you’re not on Medicaid anymore, so then they are lost," Gelbard says. "Those people have had a good insurance system that is about to fade, and it may be a couple of years from now, but we’re watching this very closely.”
And urging anyone on Medicaid to make sure the program has an address where they can get mail, so if they still qualify when a reminder comes to re-enroll every six months, they are not dropped from the program.
