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Description

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Mission Statement

The purpose of Redwoods Rural Health Center is to provide responsive preventive high quality primary health care services through a variety of healing disciplines to all people without regard to social or economic status We emphasize the clients right and responsibility to participate in his or her own health care decisions It is our hope that the clinic be a place where the needs of the whole person are metbody mind and spirit

Vision Statement

Redwoods Rural Health Center serves the entire community by providing excellent clientresponsive healthcare drawing upon traditional and nontraditional modalities Our practice is holistic interdisciplinary and seeks to identify and heal root causes of illness using the best tools available We achieve our vision through financial and operational stability proactive governing policies respect for core values and an outcomesbased system of accountability while retaining highly qualified staff and board within a respectful and inclusive environment RRHC acts as a leader in developing consciousness of good health through advocacy outreach and innovative partnerships within our community

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History

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In the early 1970s a handful of friends amp neighbors living in the hills of Southern Humboldt started talking to each other about the need for health care that would work for them

In this founding group were midwives amp young parents seeking support for the growing home birth movement There were people interested in exploring alternative therapies amp people who had received bad or disrespectful treatment at the hands of the doctors they had visited in the cities Most of these founders were poor many were on welfare amp had experienced discrimination based on their poverty their apparent counter cultural appearance or their ethnic or racial status

The common vision this group had is still expressed in the Mission Statement of Redwoods Rural Health Centerthat there be a place where a person could go to get heathcare that was respectful that was client led that recognized the validity of a variety of healing modalities that tried to treat the whole person

Thanks to some very hard work on the part of these founders who lobbied hard in Sacramento and worked to understand grants and healthcare funding Redwoods Rural came into official being as a rural health center in early 1976

The clinics first locale was a sort of hole in the wall storefront on Briceland Road By 1977 Redwoods Rural rented the more spacious mainstreet storefront next to the laundromat At first there wasnt even a doc on staff but in time Irv Tessler was hired In the early days everyone on staff from the janitor up to the medical director received the same hourly pay After an interlude in which building out in Ruby Valley was considered and dismissed the land on Westcoast Road in Redway was bought amp the medical clinic built with the dental building following sometime in the late 1980s In the mid 1990s a satellite clinic opened in Alderpoint

Throughout these decades Redwoods Rural has drawn to it some remarkable talents and very dedicated hearts From the beginning the health center was committed to a vision of healthcare that included ancient and new ways of healing During these decades RRHC has seen this cutting edge vision become the accepted standard even in medically conservative circles as more and more insurance companies and doctors groups recognize complementary therapies as effective and cost effective means of healing With the completion of the second building Dental Services were added to the mix of care many adults and children who would otherwise not have been able to have even basic dental care have smiles that attest to the skill and care of the RRHC dental staff

Providing healthcare to a small diverse rural community Redwoods Rural has faced many challenges With a commitment to seeing that the entire community is cared for RRHC has often faced cashflow difficulties due to the rising amount of uncompensated care and the difference between what the health center costs are versus what the health center is paid There have been crises of staffing and challenges to our mission In times of challenges the health center is always dependent upon the support and passion of this grassroots community to carry it through and keep it supplying the sort of responsive community centered respectful healthcare for which it was founded

Redwoods Rural Health Center is a unique community clinic in that the board of directors is elected by a membership to which it must be responsive Within the state of California most health centers function with appointed boards Redwoods Rural has believed that its elected board gives the center a strength and immediate responsiveness to community needs Anyone may become a member of RRHC All are invited to join to ensure that the caring audacious vision that started this health center continues for many decades to come