The Actors Fund’s Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic announces partnership with the New Orleans Musicians Clinic
October 7, 2005, New York The Actors’ Fund and the New Orleans Musicians Clinic (NOMC) announce that the two organizations are partnering in helping New Orleans musicians who have relocated to the New York area following Hurricane Katrina. The Actors’ Fund’s Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic will be the New York satellite facility of the NOMC.
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the NOMC served more than 1,000 musicians and their families. Since Katrina the musicians clinic has been operating from the offices of their sister clinic in Lafayette. The staff of NOMC has been tracking New Orleans musicians scattered across the country. So far over 60 of their patients have relocated to the New York City area. The Actors’ Fund, through their Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic, has opened its doors to these musicians in the New York City area who are in need of care.
“By now the denial is beginning to wear off. We all just want to return to our beloved New Orleans to dance in the streets,” states Bethany Bultman, Outreach Coordinator of NOMC. “In the meantime we are extremely grateful to organizations like The Actors’ Fund which have generously reached out to take us in.”
The Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic provides free health care to uninsured and underinsured entertainment professionals in the New York City area. The Hirschfeld Clinic provides primary and specialty care, health screenings and education. The Clinic is open five days a week and offers 24-hour on-call service and is staffed with a full-time family physician associated with the Center for Family Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Musicians wishing to make an appointment or for more information should contact the Hirschfeld Clinic at 212.489.1939.
The New Orleans Musicians' Clinic (NOMC) (www.wwoz.org/clinic) is an innovative not-for-profit occupational medicine and wellness partnership offering comprehensive health care to our community's most precious resource: our musicians. Our sponsors are the Daughters of Charity Services of New Orleans, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, and the LSU Health Care Network. Dedicated on May 2, 1998, NOMC became the first such health initiative in the United States, addressing the health care needs of musicians and their families, an under-served segment of the population. To date our dedicated consortium of service providers has treated more than 1000 local musicians.
THE ACTORS’ FUND OF AMERICA is the national nonprofit human service organization that provides for the welfare of all entertainment professionals. Founded in 1882, The Fund serves those in film, theater, television, music, opera, and dance, and assists both performers and those behind the scenes with a broad spectrum of programs designed to address the needs of the community, including comprehensive social services, health services, supportive and affordable housing, employment and training services, and skilled nursing and assisted living care. The Fund also makes emergency grants for essential needs. Administered from offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, The Actors’ Fund mission is "to advance, foster and benefit the welfare of all professionals in the entertainment community who are in need of help, ensuring that these efforts are accomplished with compassion, confidentiality and preservation of dignity for the individuals concerned."