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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nNu\u00e7i\u2019s Space holds its sixth free health clinic of the year in Athens, Georgia, on Monday, March 27, 2023. It seeks to provide affordable healthcare for uninsured members of the local community. (Photo\/Navya Shukla)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On March 27, Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space<\/a>, a non-profit organization in Athens, Georgia, hosted an all-day free medical clinic for uninsured musicians and community members in the area. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The clinic was hosted in the Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space building, 396 Oconee St., and it was primarily run by students of the Augusta University\/University of Georgia Medical Partnership<\/a>, a four-year medical school campus in Athens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space is an organization dedicated to suicide prevention and providing support and resources for those coping with mental illness, with a niche focus on local musicians. However, its health and wellness initiatives, like the free medical clinic, are usually open to the entire community, supporting the nonprofit\u2019s mission of providing access to affordable, obstacle-free healthcare for all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt’s something that our whole team is really proud of and excited about, and we’re always kind of being encouraged to spread it as far as we can because we really want these clinic spots to fill up,\u201d said Gerald Burris, a member of Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space\u2019s community support staff. \u201cWe want as many people as possible to be able to take advantage of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the slogan \u201cNo insurance, no problem,\u201d Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space\u2019s free health clinic addressed a prevalent issue in Athens-Clarke County. According to the United States Census Bureau<\/a>, over 13.9% of people under 65 years of age do not possess health insurance and do not have access to many of the basic medical checkups provided at the clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many cars could be seen lined up around the Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space building as patients came in for a variety of free medical treatments<\/a>, including primary care, blood pressure management, prescriptions for common medications and lab work through Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The patients were seen in private examination rooms by a team of medical students and their professional supervisor, said Erin Faircloth, the volunteer coordinator for Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space. The approximately five-member medical team worked to address specific patient concerns and direct them to affordable resources if their problem required further attention, Faircloth said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Northeast Health District of the Department of Public Health provides free COVID-19 related services alongside Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space\u2019s health clinic on March 27, 2023, including vaccinations and home test kits. (Photo\/Navya Shukla)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although relatively new, the free medical clinic is now a regular event conducted by Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space, which has already hosted five<\/a> other free health clinic days in 2023. The nonprofit also provides many other services that promote health and wellness<\/a>, including suicide prevention training, a counseling assistance program and annual dental and hearing clinics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I thought this event was newsworthy because the free health clinic offered by Nu\u00e7i’s Space was a wonderful initiative that was addressing the very real problem of affordable healthcare in Athens, and yet so few people seemed to know about this opportunity. The main skills I developed through this event coverage were staying observant and thinking on my feet while reporting: we received less information from interviewing people than we expected due to medical privacy concerns, so we had to rely on other means to effectively cover the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Navya Shukla Multimedia (photo, story) Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space holds its sixth free health clinic of the year in Athens, Georgia, on Monday, March 27, 2023. It seeks to provide affordable healthcare for uninsured members of the local community. (Photo\/Navya Shukla) On March 27, Nu\u00e7i\u2019s Space, a non-profit organization in Athens, Georgia, hosted an all-day free medical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,17,16,15,14],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-covid-vaccines","tag-free-healthcare","tag-health-and-wellness","tag-health-clinic","tag-nucis-space"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-navyashukla\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Working side-by-side with the free medical clinic, the Northeast Health District\u2019s<\/a> mobile outreach team was present at the event to provide incoming patients with free COVID-19 vaccinations, booster shots and home test kits, with the aim of \u201cimproving vaccination rates in Northeast Georgia,\u201d said Will Mullens, a member of the outreach team.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nWhy I Wrote the Story: <\/h4>\n\n\n\n