SALISBURY — Things in life go in cycles, and the closing of the Good Shepherd Clinic in Salisbury is part of one of those cycles, but its work carries on in the Community Care Clinic of Rowan thanks, in large part, to the connected hearts and minds of the two women in charge of each.

Jean Allen, who was the director of the Good Shepherd’s Clinic for many years, and Krista Woolly, executive director of the Community Care Clinic, have worked together through the years to provide health care to the community that would otherwise not have much, if any at all.

In the late 1980s into the early 1990s, Allen said there was a “big need for a free clinic for people who had no insurance, something either free or affordable, and there was nothing.” So, in 1993, members of the First Baptist Church joined forces with some medical practitioners “with a heart,” said Allen, and some other interested parties, and founded the Good Shepherd, a free clinic serving the indigent. And at first, they treated patients in the classrooms at the church building. They eventually moved into space at the old YMCA.

They offered visits at night, when the entirely volunteer staff could donate time, and through the months and then years, Allen said the area hospitals began to realize the effectiveness of the clinic.

“We were saving time in the emergency room, where most of our patients would have ended up, and we were saving the hospitals money,” she said. At first, they questioned the clinic’s success rate, but she said “we did a lot of handholding. This was not just seeing the patient at a visit and then forgetting about them.”

Allen slept with a pad and pen by her bed, and would often get calls overnight.

“If someone called and they were upset because a family member in Mexico had just died and they needed to plan and they hadn’t taken their medication because they were upset and just needed help, we were there for them,” she said. She would fill medical dispenser containers for patients, and would help guide them through, or call to make sure they’d taken meds, because many could not read the pill bottles.

Over time, the clinic began to see more and more in the Hispanic and Spanish-speaking community as they began to build trust. At the same time, the faith-based clinic dropped out of the free clinic circuit because they were moving toward accreditation and certification “and it was going to cost us $8,000 per year just to be certified. But when you are completely volunteer and rely on grants and donations, that’s not affordable.” She said she believes prayers were always answered in times of need, like moments when a patient needed a medication that cost $400 per pill, and a wife of a late patient walks in with her husband’s leftover medication and it happens to be that pill.

“God provides,” she said.

When the Community Care Clinic came into operation, Allen and Woolly connected and realized their goals were one and the same. However, it quickly became apparent that they could, and should, serve two communities.

“We kept serving the Spanish-speaking community, and the Care Clinic took the English-speaking clients,” Allen said. The Spanish-speaking community is made up of many who are undocumented, who are fearful of the threat of discovery and who therefore work to remain unseen, said Allen.

“To build their trust is a huge thing and not easily changed,” she said. “They understood we were there only to help, but that takes time.” From 1997 to 2003, the two operated separately, but by 2003, Allen said they were seeing many who were no longer considered immigrants because they were second generation. And the clinics were both growing so fast that they needed one another.

The Care Clinic also operates during daytime hours and for more days per week, and they offered not only medical care but dental.

Allen said as the economy changed and clinics became more structured, Woolly often had access to certain information that she could not access, and the two pooled information resources. And in 2013-2014, Allen said she knew their clinic had done their job better than any other in the state.

But, it was still all volunteer, and the work was at night after most had already worked a full-time job.

“We were aging out, and the next generation doesn’t have the same ideas,” said Allen. In 2022, she began to tell those at Good Shepherd it was time to find her replacement, “but in my heart, I knew they were not going to find them. I told them in July of 2023 that 2024 would be my last year.” But she knew the need still existed, which meant she knew the Care Clinic was somehow going to have to find a way to carry the load.

As luck would have it, Woolly contacted her to let her know that the Care Clinic had brought on some new staff that could tackle Spanish-speaking patients.

“She asked if they could take some of our patients and I said ‘how about all of them?'” Allen laughed. But it worked. Good Shepherd began to transition its patients to the care clinic, and amazingly, some of the staff at Good Shepherd also transitioned over, “so we could tell people they were still going to see their doctor.”

“Jean would come by and bring a stack of eight to 10 files each time, until eventually we had them all,” said Woolly. “And I really believe we have done a good job maintaining that connection.”

Allen agreed on a recent visit, saying she had seen several former patients in the office during a brief visit from her new home on the shore.

“This community has loved coming here, which is good, because these are like my children,” she said.

The Good Shepherd officially closed its doors in December of 2024, having seen its last patient in October.

But the Care Clinic isn’t just keeping up with patients that started at Good Shepherd, it is continuing to be innovative.

“We’ve just started teaching English classes for patients in partnership with the Literacy Council,” Woolly said, and as of last week, 26 had already signed up. She wants Allen to know “we were so thrilled to be able to take the Spanish-speaking community, to keep that going, We were already offering Telehealth, something no other clinic was doing, before COVID, and we continue to try to address things even before they come up.” A lot of times, clinics are the first to try things because there are no restrictions. Now, they have begun pop-up docs that travel to specific areas, instead of patients always having to come to the office.

“Free clinics are proven to be successful because they are tested every day,” said Allen. “I’m so glad Rowan still has one. And it’s thanks in part to two women for whom God fashioned this ministry.”