Despite the distant buzz of interstate traffic, the new Jewish Family Services of Dallas campus in Addison is peaceful.
“You may arrive stressed out, but you're not going to feel that way when you leave,” said Cathy Barker, president and CEO of Jewish Family Services of Dallas, or JFS Dallas.
The 100,000-square-foot campus off Dallas North Tollway and Keller Springs Road offers comprehensive services — including medical, mental health, nutritional and social services — under one roof. It could be the first community health center in the metroplex to have all those services on site.
Though JFS Dallas began to meet the needs of the growing Jewish community in North Texas following World War II and the Holocaust, Barker said the organization serves anyone in need. She said her organization has always understood that one basic need often leads to another.
“What we were able to do by coming to this campus is sort of rethink how we did it in a way that was going to make sense more from the client perspective,” Barker said. “We were thoughtful about how we brought our services here, how we designed the building, the fact that it needed to fit nicely with our own values of being welcoming, compassionate, caring. You feel that when you come here.”
A health care access “crisis”
The campus is in a “medically underserved area,” meaning there aren’t enough medical providers or health centers to serve the population.
“A lot of people think, ‘In North Dallas, well, there isn't a need,’” Barker said. “But you have to remember that because of the cost of living and everything people are moving north or searching for other areas that are affordable. Health access needs to be placed in those locations, too.”
JFS Dallas is in the process of becoming what’s known as a federally qualified health center, or FQHC. The FQHC, or community health center, model is designed to support uncompensated care that health centers provide to underserved populations, like low-income individuals who are uninsured or underinsured, or people enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare.
When JFS Dallas did a community needs assessment in 2019, Barker said the organization found less than 5% of people in the underserved population had a community health center close enough to them – that leaves almost 800,000 people, in the 22 zip codes that the JFS food bank serves, without a place to go.
“We started on this journey right after the [COVID-19] pandemic hit,” Barker said. “And we could see that the individuals that were most impacted and dying from COVID were people who didn't have access.”
JFS Dallas hasn’t received the FQHC designation yet, but Barker said she’s confident the organization will be approved later this year.
But, JFS Dallas already provides the type of care available in a community health center.
“A medical home”
The clinical space is located on the first floor. It has a what Barker describes as a “comfortable and welcoming” waiting room, on-site lab services, nurses’ stations and a dozen exam rooms.
Barker said patients in underserved populations often rely on safety net providers – which could mean seeing a different provider from visit to visit.
“When you come to any one of JFS's health centers, you're going to see the same doctor,” Barker said. “This becomes a medical home.”
The clinical space has additional exam rooms so it can provide services through visiting doctors – like a cardiologist or an OB-GYN.
Barker said the clinic also has integrated behavioral health services, which allows providers to do what she called a “warm handoff.” For example, a parent may talk to a doctor about behaviors that their child is exhibiting – like being disruptive in school.
“The doctor can actually walk over, pull the [behavioral health] clinician in,” Barker said. “[The behavioral health clinician] can do a little mini meeting to reassess…the challenges and then determine, ‘Does this child need to come in for a few little mini meetings with me, or do I need to refer them for longer term interventions?’”
The campus also includes one of the metroplex’s only accredited clubhouses for people with severe and persistent mental health issues, like a traumatic brain injury or schizophrenia.
“Clubhouses are required to have their own entrance because they're just for the members,” Barker said. “It’s a member-run program…The purpose of it isn’t to go hang out and shoot pool. They work.”
JFS Dallas’ clubhouse has about 150 registered members who run the space. Members have a bistro, where they determine the menu, several creative spaces and activity rooms. There are even offices for members who are peer support professionals for other members.
Barker said the clubhouse helps people find community, meaning and purpose – which is why more than 95% of its members don’t get re-hospitalized.
One campus, many services
Barker said the theme of a “warm handoff” doesn’t just stop with health services.
“We feel like if one area of health is not being addressed then the others can be affected,” Barker said. “By having it all under one roof, individuals can become physically, emotionally, nutritionally and financially healthier.”
Barker said the goal is for an average visitor have accessed at least three “unduplicated services.”
“Because to us, that's what is needed in order to help an individual become more self-sufficient,” Barker said.
That can include the health center, therapy, case management, career and other social services. JFS Dallas’ Addison campus also has food assistance programs, like its Meals-on-Wheels program – the only program providing Kosher meals in North Texas. It also has an on-site food pantry.
Barker said the compressive approach has a lot of benefits for clients.
“Say I'm a patient, and I know that I need to see the doctor,” she said. “I'm not really thinking about all of my other challenges that I have. I'm just trying to take care of the immediate urgent need.”
That patient also likely doesn’t have a lot of time and may not have access to transportation to access the services they need. Barker said that’s why JFS Dallas wanted access to resources to be simple, and works with people to make sure they have the transportation and resources they need.
“If we can’t help them also work on getting a job…and help them to get the food that they need to address their proper diet for treating their diabetes, they're not going to get better,” she said.
She also said people don’t have to go to various independent organizations and retell their whole story – which can be retraumatizing and exhausting.
“They can basically come here, take an intake, we get all their information, connect them to the services, and now they have a home for anything,” Barker said. “We've always been responsive to these needs. It's our part of repairing the world is the easiest way to say it.”
Barker said they’ve taken steps to ensure community members feel welcome throughout the entire campus. JFS hired security guards, which Barker said helps people feel safe, “especially” with concerns about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, raids growing.
“[The security guard] is not a police officer. Their job is to welcome you,” she said. “They're not checking IDs. We're not looking for residency. Everybody is welcome. We don't care where you come from. We just want you to come get the help that you need.”
A new community health care model
Last year, JFS Dallas served 22,000 individuals across all of its services – which included about 800 patients at its existing clinic on Greenville Avenue in Dallas.
Barker said that number should increase to 38,000 individuals by 2028, and 50,000 by 2030.
She said it’s going to take more than just her organization to address the total need JFS Dallas identified, but the new campus will have a significant effect on thousands of North Texans.
“When you are a nonprofit, especially doing the type of work that we are, we struggle over the fact that there's so many more out there that we're not helping,” Barker said. “But the person that's right in front of you right there is ready. And so we are making a difference in their life.”
JFS Dallas could also end up having a greater impact on health inequities by becoming a model for other "JFS-like" organizations, she said.
Though the Dallas organization isn’t affiliated with the others, it is the first JFS in the country to become a community health clinic.
“This is a very replicable model,” Barker said. “We can teach other organizations and entities what works.”
The comprehensive approach with the community health center helps JFS Dallas have a more sustainable funding model, with “less dependence on grants year over year to function.”
Barker said it’s more vital than ever to address the unmet needs of people through the community as inflation and cost-of-living increases put families in tough positions.
“We're all juggling high gas prices and how to put the food on my table is a challenge for a lot of people,” she said. “But I know that the work that we're doing is actually making a difference. I can see it in the people that we work with. I can it in reports and the data that we're able to collect.”
Abigail Ruhman is KERA’s health reporter. Got a tip? Email Abigail at aruhman@kera.org.
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