Eugene Sawyer and Second Grace United Methodist Church have given impoverished Detroit dwellers a second chance at health. A congregant and Oberlin-trained M.D., Sawyer, 58, partnered with his parish to start an on-site clinic in 2002, where he and a nurse provided primary care to underserved members of their community. In 2006, their mission expanded to off-site Juanita Reaves Free Clinic at Joy-Southfield Community Center, which provided 4,500 free clinic visits to Detroit’s uninsured last year.

Eugene Sawyer is making history … providing health services to Detroit’s underprivileged. With more than 36 percent of Detroit’s population living under the poverty line and unemployment steadily in the double digits, health insurance remains elusive to many residents; accordingly, a steady income is difficult for doctors to come by. As a result, primary care physicians have fled the state to pursue specialties elsewhere, with Detroit losing 67 percent of its physicians since the mid-1990s. But Dr. Sawyer has stood firm.

In the wake of the M.D. exodus, the events of 9/11 inspired Sawyer to give back to his community – founding, in partnership with Second Grace, the Juanita Reaves Free Clinic at Joy Southfield Community Center. When the Clinic opened in 2006, Sawyer was appointed medical director, overseeing preventive health screenings, examinations, and vaccinations. He’s held on to his position since, even over a two-year period when his daytime employer transferred him to Maryland, 500 miles away. Now residing in Michigan full-time, Sawyer has helped focus the clinic’s mission: to educate patients on disease management, especially for chronic disease like diabetes, in order to cut down the costly cycle of preventable hospitalizations for its uninsured residents.

What’s next for Eugene?

While he has volunteered at the clinic for the past nine years, Sawyer also cares for another group of patients during his days – as a lead physician at Covenant Occupational Health Services in Saginaw, Michigan. However, Sawyer calls the Clinic his passion, and has led efforts to adopt quality assurance practices as well as disease management systems emphasizing health education over the past five years.

In his own words …

“No aspect of my professional career, as a medical doctor, has been more rewarding than serving as the medical director for the Joy-Southfield Health Clinic. It has truly been a wonderful blessing to be involved in this mission to provide some modicum of health care to the poor and uninsured of the metropolitan Detroit community,” writes Sawyer on his Covenant Occupation Health and Wellness profile.

A little-known fact …

In 2009, approximately 22 percent of Detroit’s population — 200,000 — was estimated to lack health insurance.

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