Little Clinics That Deliver Great Medicine

Isabella Valencia has always cared for others, working as a domestic worker and caregiver for 20 years while raising three children in Santa Barbara. When an aggressive cancer was found during a routine screening, it was Santa Barbara’s turn to care for her. 

“Those are the words no one wants to hear,” says Valencia, remembering the call that she needed to be seen right away, “I was scared.” 

But thankfully she was being treated by Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, where they immediately brought together a team to coordinate treatment, assist with food and income loss, and offer emotional support as she navigated her illness. After six months of treatment, with her cancer in remission, Valencia reflects on her experience. 

“I was thinking, ‘Why God? Why did you pick me?’ I think God wanted me to meet those angels that were around me,” says Valencia of her stellar, compassionate care team. “You never know when you are going to need them.” 

Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics (SBNC) has been providing outstanding care to the community for over 50 years, regardless of income or insurance. It has grown from a small free clinic founded in 1973, to a network of high-quality healthcare services: four medical clinics, two dental clinics, behavioral health clinics, health coordination services, a substance abuse bridge program, and two fully-equipped mobile clinics. 

“We are little clinics that deliver great medicine,” says Maria W. Long, director of development and community relations. “I think that there’s a misconception that because we are clinics for the underinsured and uninsured that our medicine is subpar, and that’s simply not the case.” 

The clinics attract top healthcare talent from all over the country, people dedicated to being “humanitarian healers.” Their dental clinics have state-of-the-art equipment via a partnership and residency program through NYU Langone Health. Part of the secret sauce to their compassionate care is that they offer coordinated care that can range from behavioral health plus pharmacy services plus pain management or care that includes assistance with finding housing and food support.  

The neighborhood clinics have become a trusted and integral part of Santa Barbara communities, serving over 19,000 people. Two in 10 people in the community are SBNC patients. They not only serve the uninsured or unemployed, they serve people whose health insurance just doesn’t cover enough or people working on the margins, who have some income but not enough to cover all their medical bills. 

“Our patients daily have to make difficult decisions:  Do they buy groceries, pay their rent or leave their healthcare untreated?” says Long.

While the clinics serve patients from all walks of life, their mobile clinics allow them to go to where the need is greatest. Last year, their mobile dental clinic served over 3,000 children at Title I schools. And their mobile medical unit visits homebound seniors and those in low-income housing. 

“As a community, we are only as healthy as the person next to us,” says Long. “And that’s where we come in. There shouldn’t  be a boundary to good health. Everybody is deserving of good medicine.”