Executive Director Kate Jagla has headed up the Moab Free Health Clinic since spring of 2023. Formerly in charge of development and fund-raising, she was offered the position - initially on an interim basis - to replace the then-departing Doug Caylor.

Serving up a health-based community with more varied programs and opportunities for partnership and collaboration was Caylor’s vision (See Non-Profit Happenings, “From Clinic to Campus,” March 2023) and the dream continues to evolve under Jagla’s supervision.

Before the clinic moved to the old USU campus on 200 South in 2023, it had been housed in a series of small spaces. Then and now, Jagla says, “it has always felt like a tight-knit group of people.”

But two years and counting past opening day, the increased space and the intense hunger to fill it have cleared the way for a proliferation of offerings, allowing for an increase in flexibility, new partnerships, and “more people to help out and more ideas.”

Back pedal to 2021 when two volunteers from AmeriCorps showed up at the clinic. One spotlighted the “Social Determinants of Health” or, in the jargon, “SDOH’s”, to identify the many factors that affect health care, with an eye toward developing more and varied resources to implement changes and improvements.

The SDOH focus led to the creation of a Patient Navigator who works in-house with patients to guide them to various resources -- for instance, helping them to find ways to obtain affordable/free medications and nourishing food, and addressing more broadly-based needs like mental health, food security and housing stability under the SDOH model, which offers guidelines for such things.

In the following year, a second AmeriCorps volunteer helped develop the new campus to address SDOHs. One of the buildings houses health and medical care services and another opens its doors to a warren of offices containing complementary community resources.

Jagla ticks off more recent developments: partnerships with other community organizations, new offerings like enhanced psychiatric services, finding better ways to support minorities in the community by forming partnerships and alliances with support services both regionally and in the Salt Lake City area; teaming up with Provo’s Brigham Young University to enhance the women’s health department , and partnering with the University of Utah to offer psychiatric services through resident clinical rotations. This year they even worked with a mammogram team to do screenings that couldn’t have been done before on site via a vehicle known as the “Boob Bus.”

The overall strategy is to provide mental and physical wellbeing for the underserved, specifically the uninsured and underinsured, as well as a safety net and healthy foundation for the Moab community as a whole.

The dental program, implemented even before the campus became a reality -- and the second most utilized program after primary care -- continues to be an important piece.

The clinic works closely with the local nonprofit Moab Solutions to reach out to the homeless population and incorporate them into the system as well.

“I see myself continuing to make sure our team is strong and that we have more programs and more resources to offer,” Jagla says. “We need to continue to focus on people who truly don’t have access to another resource. We are also focused on serving minority communities - with multilingual staffing - and becoming increasingly more integrated within the community so people will know we’re here.”

It’s an ambitious agenda for the growing nonprofit that for 17 years has relied on strong local support. And the clinic is always looking for medical, dental and admin volunteers from within the community to help further expand the services it offers.

To volunteer, make a donation or for more information check out the website: https://www.moabfreehealthclinic.org or call up at 435-259-1113. Doors are open 9-5 Monday through Friday, although specific program hours vary, and the campus site on 200 South offers ample parking. And be sure to mention you read about the Moab Free Health Clinic in Moab Happenings.