By Dr. Jorge Otañez, MD, TrueCare
Community health centers are at the heart of every healthy community.
Across California, approximately 7.7 million people rely on community health centers for care, or about one in five Californians. These centers provide much more than a single service or one-time appointment. They offer comprehensive primary care, preventive screenings, immunizations, chronic disease management, behavioral health care, dental care, and often additional services such as vision, pharmacy, chiropractic care, and substance use treatment. Because these services are connected under one roof, patients can receive coordinated care from teams who understand their health history and their community.
Community health centers are trusted, local health care homes that provide affordable, high-quality care to everyone. While community health centers serve all, their greatest impact comes from serving communities that face barriers to care, including low-income neighborhoods, rural areas, agricultural communities, and places where there often aren’t enough providers to meet the need. They care for patients regardless of their background, income, insurance, immigration status, or ability to pay.
All Kinds of Services
Community health centers are unique because care doesn’t stop in the exam room. Many factors outside a doctor’s visit shape our health, including access to healthy food, safe housing, reliable transportation, and education. Community health centers recognize those realities and help connect patients to resources that support their overall well-being. It may include help enrolling in insurance coverage, translation services, referrals to social services, health education, transportation support, or programs that bring care directly to where people work and live.
Community health centers offer health and resource fairs, which bring wellness screenings, education, and local services together in one place. Many of them offer to meet people where they are, reaching people who may not be able to visit a health center easily, which allows providers to build trust with patients long before a health issue becomes urgent.
Community health centers also ease pressure on the broader health care system. When patients have a regular place to go for preventive care and chronic disease management, they are less likely to delay care until a condition becomes an emergency. A patient who can manage diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, depression, or dental pain with the support of a care team is more likely to stay healthy and avoid preventable emergency room visits. It benefits patients, families, hospitals, and the entire community.
When community health centers are strong, communities are stronger too. Community health centers exist because every person deserves a trusted place to receive care with dignity, respect, and compassion.
TrueCare
For more than 50 years, TrueCare has been rooted in North San Diego County, growing alongside the communities we serve. Our patients are our neighbors, coworkers, classmates, friends, and family members.
At TrueCare, our mission guides everything we do. We serve working families, seniors, veterans, children, people experiencing homelessness, agricultural workers, and everyone in between. We believe everyone should be able to access the care they need, and we work every day to reduce obstacles that can stand in the way. For some patients, that barrier is transportation. For others, it is language, cost, lack of insurance, limited appointment availability, or uncertainty about where to begin.
Other services include Community as Medicine, and Food is Medicine, as well as TrueCare’s street medicine program, mobile care units, and many outreach programs embedded at schools and other community-based organizations.
