By Eileen Moon
RED BANK – Parker Family Health Center on Shrewsbury Avenue now has even more ways to help the community.
On Oct. 1, the facility that provides medical care to low-income Monmouth County residents without health insurance celebrated the completion of its $5 million renovation project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by staff, volunteers, elected officials and donors who helped to make the two-year expansion project possible.
The 2,900-square-foot, two-story addition includes lab facilities, three new exam rooms and additional space for conferences, patient counseling and other support services.
The additional space has made it possible for Parker patients to have their lab work done on-site, access women’s health care services, have eye exams and obtain prescription eyeglasses on-site as well.
“When I started here (the eye care program) was limited to those patients suffering with diabetes,” said Suzy Dyer, Parker Center executive director. Dyer joined the center in December 2019.
Now in its 24th year, the Parker Family Health Center is named in honor of two African American physicians who were the family doctors for generations of area residents.
Like his father before him, Dr. James Parker Jr. ministered to the health care needs of the historically black and immigrant community on Red Bank’s West Side for generations. He scheduled office hours early in the morning so that patients could take care of medical issues without missing time from work. He often waived his fees for patients with limited resources.
In the late 1990s, with Parker on the brink of retirement, concern began to grow about who would tend to the health care needs of the largely low-income, Black and immigrant community on Red Bank’s West Side.
Donald Warner, then superintendent of Red Bank Regional High School, and Riverview Medical Center oncologist Eugene Cheslock, M.D., set about finding a solution.
Cheslock made it his mission to garner enough community support to establish a free clinic; one that would approach its work with the same dedication that earned the Parker family enduring respect.
With strong support from the community, government agencies, area nonprofits and a wave of dedicated volunteers, what began as an idea became a reality.
The clinic began serving patients in July 2000, operating out of a trailer on the site where the Parker Family Health Center building now stands.
In its early years, most Parker patients were from the Red Bank area. In recent years, the center has seen many more patients from Long Branch, Asbury Park and the Bayshore region.
“We’ve been discovered through tremendous efforts on the part of our volunteers and staff,” Cheslock said. “Parker has become a dot on most people’s maps.”
A Monmouth County program that provides free medical transportation to county residents has helped patients access the care they need at Parker. In addition, patients have been helped through the generosity of donors who provide Uber Health Care cards to cover the cost of rides to the clinic.
Over the past two decades, the clinic has handled more than 160,000 patient visits, treating families and individuals who depend on the center for everything from school physicals to care for the elderly.
With its recent expansion, the center now offers a wider range of services in a comfortable environment where patients are treated with the dignity and compassion integral to its mission.
“Today, over 1,400 county residents count Parker as their ‘medical home,’ noted Jeanne Wagner, Parker Center development director.
The center had 471 new patients in 2023; 423 have enrolled in 2024. While some are long-term patients, others may seek health care there for a short time due to a job loss or other family circumstances that make health insurance unaffordable.
“It’s a situation that any one of us or a member of our family could be in,” Dyer said.
Many patients at Parker have jobs that don’t include health insurance. Some are working two and three jobs and are happy to be able to schedule appointments on evenings or weekends at Parker. The center maintains weekend and evening hours to accommodate patients’ work schedules. “That keeps people on the job,” noted Cheslock.
Parker Center also helps patients identify obstacles to healthy living and seek solutions. “We try to meet our patients where they are,” Dyer said.
Something as simple as a pair of shoes can make a big difference, Dyer noted. One longtime patient who was advised that she needed to walk for her health, had only one pair of flat shoes that weren’t suitable for exercising. The center was able to provide her with a pair.
“It dawned on me that she probably is not unique,” Dyer said.
The staff and volunteers believe in responding to specific needs that may not easily fall into a particular category and working with community partners to meet those needs. The center recently helped with a sneaker drive for kids in collaboration with YMCA Healthy Kids Day.
And thanks to their partnership with Ritesh Shah Charitable Pharmacy, patients who are prescribed medication can get their prescriptions filled at no charge.
The center also partners with JBJ Soul Kitchen and the Hope and Comfort Center at Pilgrim Baptist Church and now provides mental health services, operating with a staff of 21 and 140 volunteers, 72 of whom are medical professionals.
To be eligible for free medical care at Parker, a patient must be a Monmouth County resident who lacks medical insurance and whose income is no more than 300% of the federal poverty level. An individual with an income of $45,000 or a family of four with an income of $94,000 without medical insurance may qualify for care at Parker.
Although Monmouth County is the fifth wealthiest county in New Jersey, Parker officials noted it is home to two of the state’s poorest communities – Asbury Park and Long Branch.
“Even with the Affordable Care Act,” Wagner said, “31,000 residents under 65 remain uninsured and unable to meet the cost of medical care. Thousands more who are 65 and over are ineligible for Medicare and uninsured.”
To spread the word about the availability of health care services at Parker, its outreach workers visit some 50 businesses a year. They also visit locations like the Red Bank Train Station to distribute information about the health center’s services.
“It takes a lot for a thing like this to work,” Cheslock said. “You need an understanding community. What we are dealing with here are human beings, regardless of where they come from or their status.”
Dyer said patients trust Parker, and the staff and volunteers who work there are proud to be part of its mission. “It’s really a powerful thing to be able to do this work.”
The article originally appeared in the November 28 – December 4, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
