- New Orleans Musicians' Clinic
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The New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC) is a comprehensive health service dedicated to sustaining New Orleans’ musicians and tradition bearers by providing access to affordable medical services, stressing prevention and advocacy, and utilizing such facilities as a medical school, volunteers and community providers.
The NOMC is a subsidiary arm of the New Orleans Musicians' Assistance Foundation, (NOMAF).
Contents
NOMAF Mission Statement
The mission of the New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation is to keep music alive by sustaining New Orleans musicians and tradition bearers in body, mind and spirit,[1][2] by developing access to primary care, preventative health services, occupational and social services regardless of the ability to pay for such services.
Founder
The NOMC was the brain-child of Dr. Jack McConnell MD, (retired),[3] as he performed “Bill Bailey” with the highly successful rock band Phish, at the 1997 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Dr. McConnell, whose son Page plays piano for Phish, was no stranger to the world of complex and perplexing issues. He is a nationally recognized scientist and business executive, widely acknowledged for his medical contributions. Among other things he directed the program which led to the development and marketing of Tylenol. He created and directed the first broad scale research program in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, leading ultimately to the first commercially available MRI instrument in the United States. Dr. McConnell also began the first Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) in Hilton Head, South Carolina in 1992. At that time one out of three people who lived on Hilton Head Island had no access to health care.
The idea behind the clinic
McConnell met with a dedicated team of health advocates for the working poor in Louisiana and musicians’ advocates to come up with a medical safety net for New Orleans’ musicians. Louisiana has had universal health care since the 1930s, when Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long (1928–1932) pushed a number of bills through the 1929 session of the Louisiana State Legislature to fulfill campaign promises including an unprecedented universal health program for hospitals and universal “charity” care.[4] In 1995, McConnell set out to design a comprehensive health care system to treat musicians. Pre hurricane Katrina, more than 3500 musicians working in New Orleans suffered from health problems related to working late hours, long separations from family while on the road, and uncertain financial futures. Even before the floods of August 2005, New Orleanians endured an epidemic of poverty and health care outcomes rivaling most Third World nations. While the city’s tradition-bearers are celebrated the world over, at home many live hand-to-mouth, outside mainstream social and economic systems. These same musicians have prided themselves in existing in a cash-only economy, never having a bank account, and never paying taxes. Needless to say, many icons died young from preventable and treatable conditions. They were, quite simply, a class excluded from the American health care delivery system.[2]
Louisiana Health Statistics
In 2008, Louisiana was rated as the 50th unhealthiest state based on a variety of health statistics. Among those, Louisiana was the 41st rated stated for smoking prevalence, the 47th state with the highest prevalence of obesity, the 47th state with a lack of health care insurance (1 out of every 4 adults in Louisiana lacks healthcare insurance), 48th for preventable hospitalizations, 45th for cardiovascular deaths, and 49th for cancer deaths. Lung cancer is particularly prevalent in the African American male population of New Orleans. With lung cancer being the most common cancer in the world and the #1 cause of death by cancer, New Orleans African American males top that list, having the highest incidence of lung cancer in the world. [5]
New Orleans’ Unique Cultural Geography
New Orleans is universally acknowledged to be the birthplace of jazz, the only indisputably American art form, but the inventory of New Orleans cultural uniqueness hardly stops there. These cultural manifestations include such general celebrations as Mardi Gras - including the Mardi Gras Indians who parade most visibly on Mardi Gras Day, but also St. Joseph's Day, Super Sunday, and other special occasions, weaving in and out of dozens of inner-city communities. [6]
A Cultural Inventory Like No Other
New Orleans is unique among all American cities in the manifold ways the culture bubbles out from and onto the street: the jazz funerals and other brass-band parades and their related activities of such groups as the Baby Dolls, the Skeletons, and Social Aid and Pleasure clubs commemorating untold numbers of events: weddings, sports victories, birthdays, building and exhibit openings, and second-lining, in which virtually the entire community participates. The failure of the Army Corps of Engineers to protect New Orleans placed in extreme jeopardy and subsequently caused catastrophic damage to both the United States' and the world's cultural patrimony and assets, stated Michael Sartisky, PhD, Editor-In-Chief Louisiana Cultural Vistas Fall 2007.
On-Going Barriers to Health Post-Katrina
Katrina’s devastation did not stop when the water receded. New Orleans’ musician patients encounter ongoing barriers. The NOMC continues to struggle to help musicians cope with depression, separation from family, and crippled public health and education systems. New Orleans musicians face daily crises as the equipment, venues, and social networks they relied on for employment remain in shambles. The depopulation of the city and dramatic drop-off in tourist traffic has limited opportunities for musicians to earn a living. Steady gigs outside New Orleans are scarce. [2] In June 2006, New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley and several regional coroners outlined the humanitarian crisis spawned by the dramatic loss of hospital beds for the mentally ill after Hurricane Katrina. As the supply of beds waned and suicides went up, police responded to a record number of calls for psychiatric emergencies, and mental patients were dumped in jail at "unacceptable rates." [2] With few places to go for care, the chronically mentally ill patients have crowded jails and jammed emergency rooms that have limited capacity to help them, reported Kate Moran in Times Picayune (Sunday, October 7, 2007). Dr. Scott Griffies, a psychiatrist who works at University Hospital, says he sees a large volume of patients in the emergency room who use drugs and alcohol to escape the stress of living in a stricken city. Meanwhile, numbers provided by the State show only a third as many patients are being treated with substance abuse problems as before the flood. [2]
Sphere of Support: Medical, Emotional, Financial, and Social
The NOMC has become an essential medical service due to the lack of a system of care for those people without insurance. The few volunteer-staffed clinics in the area are overwhelmed with patients. The majority of these other clinics lack access to affordable prescription medications, relying on samples or costly retail pharmacies. While ER and Trauma care are available, outpatient services and sick care are not available in New Orleans. There remain access issues with the public hospitals in surrounding communities. For many musicians, the NOMC is their only source of support - whether it be medical, emotional, financial, or social.[2]
The impact of Hurricane Katrina on the psyche of New Orleans musicians has been immense, and their needs are increasing rather than diminishing. Since Hurricane Katrina, NOMC have broadened their mission to address the new challenges faced by New Orleans musicians. Displaced family members, housing problems, financial difficulties, mental stress created by grief and loss – all negatively impact the health of New Orleans musicians. The capacity of the city and state services to meet these challenges has been greatly reduced. It will take many years to rebuild.[2]
The NOMC’s expanded social services include the registration of patients in pharmaceutical assistance programs, crisis and case management, electronic medical records, identifying musician-patients, referral to and follow-up with appropriate agencies, and involvement in regular meetings with partnering organizations to provide outreach to patients in non-clinical settings.[2]
Partnerships
The NOMC works with neighborhood groups like the Musicians’ Protective Union. In the Tremé neighborhood (the historic birthplace of Jazz), NOMC collaborated to create the St. Anna’s Episcopal Church Musicians’ Mission, a lively jam session held weekly, which includes a free meal and a “resource hall”, providing multiple services such as 5 point anti-stress acupuncture, legal advice, housing assistance, and medical and mental health screenings, and social service referrals.[2]
New Projects
Herman "Roscoe" Ernest III
The NOMAF is currently working on the Herman Ernest Memorial Interfaith Health Screening Initiative that is addressing head and neck cancer in inner city New Orleans. This initiative honors the life of Herman "Roscoe" Ernest III. They are using a faith based approach that is partnering with many local churches to raise awareness about these types of cancers. This project is important for all members of the community but especially musicians due to their increased risk for these cancers as a result of their exposure to tobacco and alcohol.
References
- ^ About NOMAF
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Do Ya Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans Medical Problems of Performing Artists, vol 2, 135–138, December 2007
- ^ Jack McConell: What have you done for someone today? Tony Bartelme
- ^ Long, Huey P. (1996). Every Man a King: the Autobiography of Huey P. Long. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306806959.
- ^ World Health Organization (March 2003). WHO: World Cancer Report. Lyon, France: IARC Press. p. 182. ISBN 9283204115.
- ^ Bultman, Bethany. 2000 New Orleans. Compass American Guides, 4th Edition p 184. ISBN 0679006478
External links
Categories:- Organizations based in New Orleans, Louisiana
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