Mission and History
The Santa Rosa Free Clinic is located in the Catholic Charities Family Support Center shelter in downtown Santa Rosa. The Santa Rosa Free Clinic provides free medical and psychiatric treatment as well as mental health case management to the people of Sonoma County, with a focus on the needs of the homeless. Patients of all ages are seen in the clinic, and services are regularly provided in both English and Spanish. Because the Santa Rosa Free Clinic is located in a family shelter, it handles a very high volume of infant and child cases.
The Santa Rosa Free Clinic, previously known as the Homeless Outreach Clinic of Santa Rosa, was opened in 1999 with support from the Sutter Family Medicine Residency program and Catholic Charities. The goal of the clinic has been to enhance the quality and accessibility of health services for the indigent, and to provide a community training opportunity for family medicine residents. Catholic Charities has provided space and administrative support for the clinic, and Sutter has provided free medications, partial salary support and liability coverage for clinicians affiliated with the residency program. For much of its history, the clinic has operated one half day a week, staffed by a clinical preceptor from the family medicine program and a resident physician. In the summer of 2006, directorship of the clinic passed from Leona Judson NP to Michael Kozart MD, PhD, who in addition to his affiliation with the Sutter Family Medicine Residency program as a clinical preceptor, works as a staff psychiatrist for the Sonoma County Department of Mental Health.