Studies show that stress can cause a person to become ill. With finals coming up, and teachers giving students assignment after assignment, it can be pretty easy to become stressed, and eventually sick. If this happens, then The Corner Health Center is the place to go.
Corner is conveniently located at 47 N. Huron Street in downtown Ypsilanti, near the bus stop, and is open Monday to Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Walk-in hours are on Monday and Friday mornings from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Appointments can often be scheduled for the same day that you call in.
“The Corner was founded 30 years ago by a group of community members who were concerned about teen pregnancy rates in Ypsilanti,” says Ellen Clement, the executive director at The Corner Health Center. “And they felt that there was a real need for a specialized place to provide care to young people.”
The Corner provides health care to “anybody between the ages of 12 to 22.” When asked why the age range was set for people between those ages, The Corner’s Medical Director Kathryn Fessler told me that it was their “mission from the beginning,” and that it, “grew out of a community need.”
If you’re worried about being on your own for once, and feel that going to the clinic on your own is a big step, don’t be.
“There’s more and more evidence that shows that particularly some young people are much better served in these types of settings,” Clement says. “They’re a little too old for pediatric care; they don’t want to go to their baby doctor anymore and they’re really too young to go into a health care setting that’s primarily about older adults.”
There are plenty of different kinds of doctors at The Corner Health Center, including pediatricians, a doctor in internal
medicine, family medicine doctors, midwives, obstetricians, psychiatrists, and therapists. The Corner has 13 clinic rooms in order to take care of a large quantity of patients at once. Each appointment can last from a half an hour, to 45 minutes, to an hour, depending on the needs of the patient.
Being a college student, most of us are limited on the money we have available, but people who work for The Corner are very understanding of this, and will provide the care that one needs, for a price they can afford. “We never turn anybody away regardless of their ability to pay,” says Clements. “If you’re in our age group, we’ll take care of you.”
I asked them what they tell people who come in who don’t have insurance or a lot of money, and Clements responded with, “We’ll say well, let’s see if you’re eligible for any public programs, and maybe we can help you get enrolled, and if not, we’ll see where you fit on our sliding fee scale.”
Curious, I then inquired what a “sliding fee scale” was. Clements describes it as a payment process with “six different levels, based upon a patient’s income,” she also noted that most patients that come in for an appointment sit on the bottom two levels of the scale, which amount to 10 percent of one’s income.
One thing that makes The Corner more unique from other medical facilities is their outreach program. “For example if there was a club or a class that wanted to have an expert to come in and talk about anything health related, young adult,
development related, drugs, sex, LGBT issues, any of those things,” Fessler explained. “We have someone here that will come to an organization and speak with them.” They also have a theater troupe that will perform for a club or organization as well as a health educator for the Ypsilanti school district.
For many in the Ypsilanti community, The Corner provides a lot of things including a food pantry, a tangible needs program to assist people who need clothing or other personal care products and in addition will help people apply for insurance, get transportation by providing people with bus tokens and can provide translation for those who do not speak English very well.
“The reason we’re able to do this in terms of not requiring people to pay in order to be seen is because we have a large and loyal group of private donors,” Clements explains. “We do fundraising and people write checks, and they give us money to help us do this work because they believe in it, and we also apply for grants for people who are unable to pay.”
So if you’re feeling like your body is erupting with pain, or if you just need some extra medical care, check out The Corner Health Center, for a check-up. They’re only right around the corner.
