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Biloxi health center director succeeding against great odds to provide medical services to low-income patients in the aftermath of Katrina receives $120,000 leadership award
Boston, Mass – In the days, weeks, and months after Katrina hit, Joe Dawsey had plenty of good excuses to stop providing care to patients at the Coastal Family Health Center, where he serves as executive director. He had no desk, no computer, not even billing system or medical records. Yet Dawsey continued to provide medical services to low-income patients in Biloxi, Mississippi. .
His impressive reservoir of quiet confidence and optimism inspired his devastated staff and community to move forward through a frustrating maze of responses and obstacles to maintain services to his community in crisis. For his uncanny ability maintaining staff and services in Coastal Mississippi, Dawsey has been chosen as one of five recipients of a special Gulf Coast Community Health Leadership Award by the Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership Program.
No office? No problem. Dawsey worked from his car with his cell phone, when he could get a signal. He made do with the likes of tents and trailers as sites for temporary care of patients. He made services available even though he had no way to track or send out bills and therefore no way to collect payment for services rendered.
Dawsey may not be superman, but he applied almost superhuman organizational skills to keep his clinic going when so many other service providers failed to go on. He documented patient needs and matched donor interests to various need categories. He brought in nursing and mental health professional support from outside sources in order to help Coastal’s staff deal with their own loss and trauma. He scheduled weekly meetings among staff and potential donors.
In addition, he negotiated with several medical providers to convert construction trailers into an interim medical clinic. This was no easy task: It required site use approvals and land rights acquisition from the city, donations of money and equipment, complex engineering and construction, and much more. But the results reveal his success: The facility is currently operational.
No single person could accomplish all this alone, but only someone with Dawsey’s passion to help people and commitment to see the organization survive could collaborate with others in his own and the extended community to make it happen. He made contact with many individuals, including the governor, as well as with corporations such as Johnson & Johnson, AmeriCares, Pfizer, Merck and the TV show Extreme Makeover, to convince them to donate to his organization.
“Joe has managed to blend a broad array of potential resources against a broader set of needs…and make everyone feel they are pulling together in a wonderful group effort against overwhelming odds,” said David Campbell, executive Director of HandsOnWorldwide, a Massachusetts-based disaster response organization that worked directly with Coastal Family Health Center during the past year. They met doing roof repairs right after the storm.
Dawsey and the four other winners will be honored in October at CHLP’s annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 12. Others receiving the award are Kimberly Dilosa, Executive Director, YOUTHanasia Foundation, Inc.; New Orleans, La; Elise Hough, Executive Director, United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Houston, Bellaire, Tex; Vien Nguyen, Pastor, MQVN Community Development Corporation, New Orleans, La; and Beverly Wright, Executive Director for Environmental Justice/Dillard University, New Orleans, La. Each will receive $105,000 to further the work of his or her program and a $15,000 personal award.
“Last summer’s devastating hurricanes brought into focus for all Americans the gaping holes in this country’s safety net,” said Catherine Dunham, Ed.D, CHLP’s Program Director. “It reinforced what we know to be true; that local leaders taking the initiative are really the first and best responders. They deserve this special award as recognition of their extraordinary contribution to the recovery effort.”
CHLP also awards $1.2 million each year to health leaders who have surmounted personal and other obstacles to help Americans gain access to health care and social services. Since 1992, the program has distributed 140 awards in 47 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. For more information, go to www.communityhealthleaders.org.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change. For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
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