They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but there is such a thing as free care. Dozens of local practitioners of holistic and alternative treatment methods have been giving it away for years, under the name Health Care is a Human Right.
Each month, the collective of healers holds clinics in a number of places — the Darmstadt Shelter and Kirkland Hotel in Kingston, the Parish Hall on Main Street in Phoenicia and the Woodstock Community Center. (The Darmstadt clinics are open only to shelter and Family Inn residents and staff; all others are open to the public. The next one at the Kirkland, 2 Main St. Uptown, will be next Thursday, Aug. 8, from 4-7 p.m.)
According to Susan Weeks, RPA-C, who co-founded the group 10 years ago and now serves as its director, the group’s mission is “to provide holistic health care to all regardless of ability to pay.”
The providers, or “faculty” of Health Care is a Human Right cover a broad span of disciplines: acupuncture, nutrition, homeopathy, massage therapy, reiki, energy work, hypnosis and more. All told, there are about 60, who all work pro bono, and more are being interviewed all the time, said Weeks.
Money truly is no object: insured or not, anyone seeking holistic care will be helped, for free. A triage procedure which involves the filling out of some forms and releases is done on each client but that’s about it. Which is not a bad deal at all, considering holistic and alternative care is not always covered by insurance or if covered, not very well, and can be expensive. “It gives people an opportunity to experience modalities that they normally wouldn’t be able to,” said acupuncturist and group managing director Julia Rose of Phoenicia.
The idea, said Weeks, is to bring healing back to its true basics: helping someone who needs help. “I think we have an amazing faculty of healers who are an example of what healing should be — people who are experts in their field and give of themselves selflessly to help others,” Weeks said, noting that it includes some of the most experienced practitioners in the area. “I’m really proud of them and I think they deserve a tremendous amount of credit.”
Last month’s clinic at the Kirkland featured a number of these providers treating a steady stream of people who appeared to be from numerous walks of life. Every nook and cranny of the hotel’s public interior space seemed to be in use — one room hosted massage, while a hypnotist set up in the landing between flights of stairs.