Alcohol and drug addicts at the Salvation Army's Adult Rehabilitation Center leave there a lot healthier than they were when they arrived, thanks to a corps of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center volunteers.
With TLC and lots of shots, Kaiser
volunteers help keep Salvation
Army rehab clients on the
road to better healthBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comBesides providing routine medical care, doctors and nurses show up annually with vaccines to make sure the men are protected against flu and pneumonia.
Internist Craig Nakatsuka started the clinic about 10 years ago after volunteering at the 322 Sumner St. facility in Iwilei.
He said he initiated the program under the vision of Harry Peters, former chaplain at the center, and with the assistance of Bonnie Chang, registered nurse at Kaiser.
She helped to set up the program and recruit hospital staff, Nakatsuka said. One of the early recruits was Dr. Thomas Nestor, also an internist. Dr. Francis Liu, chief of infectious disease, was among other physicians drawn into the clinic.
About four to six doctors participate now with registered nurses and pharmacists, Nakatsuka said. Most are from Kaiser but some retirees from private practice also help.
Another regular volunteer is Grace Cline, who was responsible for the clinic as a Salvation Army officer and assistant to the administrator. Although she retired in 1996, she continued to work until two years ago and still shows up on clinic nights.
"It's a wonderful program and I just love the men there," she said. "I'm sort of like their mother."
The center is nearly always filled to its capacity of 75 men, she said. They range in age from 21 to 50 or 55, with the average at about 28 or 30, and many have families and children, she said.
They must be "clean and sober" when they join the six-month program and remain that way until they graduate, Cline said. The men earn their keep working in the Salvation Army's thrift shop operation and they're drug-tested every time they go in and out, she said. Proceeds from the thrift shops support the rehabilitation center.
"If they succeed in six months, most of them have a wonderful start getting into the community with regular work, living and going back to their families," she said.
Dr. Nakatsuka got involved because a medical checkup is required for all the men and the center couldn't afford to pay a doctor, Cline said. "When we had Dr. Nakatsuka coming in, it changed the whole thing..."
The clinic began as a "ragtag operation" and grew into a rather sophisticated, efficiently run clinic, due largely to Chang's organizational and recruitment efforts, Nakatsuka said..
Liu said a vaccination program was launched with free vaccines from the state Department of Health after doctors one night found almost half the men had what appeared to be the flu.
"It started me thinking all these guys live and work together and it only takes one to bring in flu and everybody else has gotten it," Liu said.
The men must sign consent forms and not everybody agrees to the shots, Liu said. But the volunteers probably do about 100 flu vaccinations each year and the same for pneumonia, he said.
"It's so well organized we can give out 70 shots in a little over an hour." No vaccinations were done last year because of a vaccine shortage, but Kaiser has most of its supply this year, Liu said.
"It's been fun to do," he said. "A lot of us feel it's probably one of the best things we could do for those guys to keep them healthy.'
The doctors used to hold a clinic twice a month and now, with more volunteers to meet the needs, they do it monthly.
They provide general medical care for such things as colds, rashes and muscular skeletal joint complaints, Nakatsuka said. "We do uncover problems, including high blood pressure and chronic infections.
"We're limited in what we're doing," he added. "We try to enlist drug samples from pharmaceutical companies and make do with what we can.
"These are people who are rehabilitating drug addicts. In this program they are trying to turn themselves around and they are very grateful for the help we give them."
This is "like a breath of fresh air" for the medical staff, who often see aggressive and manipulative addicts in doctors' offices, he said. "I think the program itself is very wonderful in keeping them rehabilitated. Certainly, I think we're providing a very valuable service for clients, but we get a lot back."
Nakatsuka said he didn't expect the program to last this long. "I've been very proud of that."
