Update on Lyon-Martin Health Services
Photos courtesy of HealthRIGHT 360
Mental Health Director Silvia Sandoval, LCSW
Director of Clinic Operations Beth Midanik-Blum
Co-Directors of Newly Allied Clinic in the Mission Share Hopes for Greater Access to Medical Care Women’s Community Clinic joined LyonMartin Health Services at the 1735 Mission Street clinic this May, and the two programs are now providing services from a shared location. This location is also home to Lee Woodward Counseling Center for Women, a comprehensive multi-cultural and multilingual adult cisgender and trans women’s outpatient program that provides integrated substance use and mental health treatment services. This allows a new team of co-directors at the newly allied clinic to provide comprehensive health services to women and transgender people through the HealthRIGHT 360 network, which changes lives for people in need by providing comprehensive, integrated, compassionate care that includes primary medical care, mental health services and substance use disorder treatment. Mental Health Director Silvia Sandoval, LCSW, Director of Clinic Operations Beth Midanik-Blum and Medical Director Tri Do, M.D., will be codirectors at the new allied clinic. To give you a better sense of what this new clinic location will provide for its clients, each
of the co-directors has provided some insight into their background, expertise and hopes for greater access to care. Medical Director Tri Do, M.D. San Francisco Bay Times: Please tell us about your role since you joined the allied clinic this year. Dr. Do: As Medical Director of Lyon-Martin and Women’s Community Clinic, I am responsible for ensuring that patients receive the highest quality medical care possible, no matter what service they need from our clinics. San Francisco Bay Times: What was your experience prior to joining HealthRIGHT 360 this year? How have those experiences helped with your new role? Dr. Do: I first started with a degree in literature, but then changed courses and attended medical school, picking up a master’s in public health along the way. My training is internal medicine with a focus in LGBTQI health, including HIV care. I’ve held a myriad of medical and public health roles, including professor of medicine at UCSF, global medical director of a diagnostics company, and chief medical officer of another health center in San Francisco. I’ve also been on the board of several local, national and international organizations focused on health, but I’m most passionate about community health. Our system of healthcare is complex and ever-changing, and my background and experiences help me to understand how data, quality and sustainability intersect, so that we can provide the best patient care possible. San Francisco Bay Times: What are some advantages of the shared clinic location? Dr. Do: The services provided by Lyon-Martin Health Services, Women’s Community Clinic and Lee Woodward Counseling Center for Women are very complementary. Women’s Community Clinic does an enormous amount of community outreach and engagement and provides a greater depth of women’s health care. Lyon-Martin Health Services is well known for its medical and mental health services to transgender people and to cisgender lesbians and bisexual women. San Francisco Bay Times: What services are offered at this clinic? Dr. Do: We offer primary medical and mental health care for patients in a safe and supportive environment. This means people can receive a range of preventive and therapeutic services for any number of medical and mental health conditions. For people starting gender-affirming hormones or needing surgery referrals, we can serve a range of needs and help with gender change paperwork. We offer sexual and reproductive health services, including short and long-acting contraception, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy options counseling and sexual well-being. We will soon have onsite psychiatry as well.
we have a long way to go in terms of access to clinically competent and culturally inclusive care. Data shows that 75–80% of people from our communities report experiences of discrimination in healthcare settings. Many patients come to us from other counties and states because they can’t find providers who Medical Director Tri Do, M.D. are able to serve their needs. Our allied clinics attract staff who are dedicated to, and are from, the communities that we serve. We provide specialized training so that they can be the change in the world we’d like to see, providing compassionate and quality care one patient at a time. Mental Health Director Silvia Sandoval, LCSW San Francisco Bay Times: What is your expertise? How do you apply these abilities to your work at the allied clinic? Silvia Sandoval: I joined Lyon-Martin Health Services in November 2016 as Mental Health Director and a clinician. I have been practicing for the last 18 years, mostly in the nonprofit sector providing direct, clinical services to members of disenfranchised communities and people of color. I have a master’s degree in social work and am a Ph.D. candidate at Smith College for Social Work. I worked for YaleNew Haven Hospital and served a 4-year tenure at the National Institute of Mental Health. As a person of color and an immigrant, I feel that I am able to connect on both a professional and personal level to provide empathy and validation to clients who experience racism and discrimination on a daily basis. I am relationally trained and discuss issues of race and privilege with clients and the effects on their mental health on a regular basis. San Francisco Bay Times: What is most beneficial about the new shared clinic location? Silvia Sandoval: We are a community health clinic, so being in the Mission is great as we are able to increase access for members of our community. With the alliance of Women’s Community Clinic, we are able to extend our mental health services to cis-women, which furthers HealthRIGHT 360’s mission of providing a wide range of comprehensive, integrated care to everyone. At the end of the day, we are here to serve our community in the best way possible, and this new location is making that a little bit easier. San Francisco Bay Times: What do the communities you serve need the most? Does the clinic help to fill those needs?
Si lv ia Sa ndova l: In mental health care specifically, we see a myriad of cases and clinical issues. Our clients present us with very challenging clinical San Francisco Bay Times: What issues that are often exdo you believe are the greatest acerbated by limited acneeds in the community that cess to services, homelessyou serve? How does the clinic ness and trauma, as well help to bridge gaps in care? as psychosocial stressors Dr. Do: Despite all of the advanc- Calvin Gilbert, Primary Care Provider with Lyon-Martin Health Services and Women’s such as racial and gender es we’ve made in the rights of cisgen- Community Clinic, works with patients to ensure they receive the best health outcomes pos- discrimination, inability der women and transgender people, sible and greatest access to the care they need. to f ind trans-competent 12
SA N FRANCISCO BAY T I ME S
J U LY 2 6 , 2 0 1 8