Congressionally Directed Spending for Construction Projects - Name: La Maestra Family Clinic, Inc. Address: 4060 Fairmount Ave. San Diego, CA 92015 Project Director: Corinne Hanson, MA Phone Number: 619.269.1267 Email: chanson@lamaestra.org Website: www.lamaestra.org Grant Request: $752,000 La Maestra Family Clinic, Inc. is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) and a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). For more than 33 years, the organization has served immigrant, refugee, uninsured and underinsured populations in the medically underserved communities of central, east and south San Diego County, California. La Maestra currently operates 18 primary care and behavioral health medical clinics, ten dental suites, three school-based sites and a mobile medical and dental unit. In 2022, La Maestra served 40,654 patients, which accounted for 203,764 clinic visits. La Maestra provides needed linguistically and culturally appropriate primary care, specialty care and support services to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. The organization’s target population is individuals and families living at or below 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL). In 2022, 86% of patients served were living at or below 200% FPL. For the proposed project, La Maestra will be renovating the organizations recently acquired 6,145 square foot building located at 181 Rea Avenue. The organization will expand access to high quality, culturally and linguistically competent behavioral health and substance use disorder services, including medication-assisted treatment, as well as integrated primary care with a focus on homeless individuals and their families. The funding will be used to reconfigure the building to include a pharmacy, nine exam rooms, seven behavioral health consultation rooms, two lobbies, a group therapy room, three restrooms, two nurses’ stations, a server room, and six rooms for case management and outreach staff. All services will be provided using a mindfulness and trauma-informed approach to care, which is especially needed among the large immigrant and refugee population served in this community. La Maestra provides cultural and linguistically competent care in more than 30 languages and dialects. All of our providers are bilingual and bicultural. In addition, our counselors come from the community’s served and provide peer-to-peer support for the populations served. This project is needed to meet the need for primary care and specialty care in this community. According to the 2019-2021 Community Health Assessment (CHA) by San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), mental health issues, along with alcohol and drug use, are among the top five health problems for which there are the least number of resources to address. More specifically, within the east region of San Diego County, mental health issues were identified as the most important health problem, and alcohol/drug abuse were rated second. Upon completion, this project will increase access to behavioral health services for 3,000 patients annually. Patients will have access to an onsite pharmacy, primary care and access to behavioral health and substance use disorder services. In addition, La Maestra will be promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, and improving access to needed behavioral health among this high need and sharply increasing population along the Southern Border.
