A legacy of care
Santa Cruz Community Health will be celebrating a half century of providing health care in Santa Cruz County with a celebration at Hotel Paradox Oct. 5
The Purple Pod at Santa Cruz Community Health’s Capitola Road clinic is a nexus of activity. Nurses, medical assistants, nurse practitioners, physicians and other health care professionals use the space to collaborate on care, chart their cases and communicate with patients.
Santa Cruz Community Health acupuncturist Kristina Hanley provides a treatment to patient Martha Perez at a Santa Cruz Community Health acupuncture clinic in Live Oak. Acupuncture is offered six days each week at Santa Cruz Community Health’s Live Oak Health Center and three days each week at Women’s Health Center in downtown Santa Cruz. Hanley has a long history with the organization, having started as a medical assistant volunteer at Santa Cruz Women’s Health Center in 1989.
Luisa Cortez shares a quiet and tender moment with her son Henry, 3, during a consult and exam with Santa Cruz Community Health pediatrician Garry Crummer and psychologist Barbara Bentley from Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Specialty Services at Santa Cruz Community Health’s Capitola Road clinic. Drs. Bentley and David Ansel come to the clinic once each month to help the staff diagnose autism and intellectual disabilities and to collaborate on strategies and care. Fifty years ago, the Santa Cruz Women’s Health Collective was born out of a “pressing need to elevate women’s health in the community, creating an empowering space for health care by and for women.” Over the past five decades, Santa Cruz Community Health (as it is now called) has stayed true to its roots while evolving and growing to meet the changing needs of the people it serves. Today, Santa Cruz Community Health serves over 13,000 residents across its network of three clinics in Live Oak, Santa Cruz and Ben Lomond. It provides comprehensive primary health care services for the whole family, including family practice, pediatrics, full-scope women’s health care, gender-affirming care, behavioral health, office-based addiction treatment, acupuncture, chiropractic and optometry. On Oct. 5, Santa Cruz Community Health will be celebrating a half century of providing health care in Santa Cruz County with a celebration at Hotel Paradox in Santa Cruz called “50 Years of Fierce Care.” Tickets are available through Sept. 30 for the event at schealthcenters.org/50th-anniversary-celebration.
Optometry technician Eve Murillo helps a client choose a new pair of eyeglasses at Santa Cruz Community Health.
Santa Cruz Community Health Lead Community Organizer Rosio Sanchez, second from left, and Development and Communications Director Oscar Sanchez, far left, meet with the organization’s Patient Advisory Committee. From right, Angelica Caballero, Julissa Silva and Diana Valadez.