The Caprock Foundation recognized Lubbock Impact Free Clinic, located at 2707 34th St., as its 2012 Gala Latina grant recipient award of $25,000.

The free clinic is operated by TTUHSC School of Medicine students and is dedicated to supporting the residents of Lubbock who are in a difficult economic situation. Lubbock Impact works to relieve three basic needs to help an individual start making the steps toward moving out of poverty: food, clothing and medical care. Lubbock Impact provides the facilities and operating budget for the clinic while TTUHSC provides medical faculty and student volunteers.

The objective of Lubbock Impact Free Clinic is to meet the medical, psychological and spiritual needs of the homeless, working poor, uninsured and medically underserved within and around Lubbock by providing urgent and bridge medical and dental care. All services are provided free of charge to patients.

The Gala Latina Grant from the Caprock Foundation will be utilized as start-up funds for Lubbock Impact Free Clinic Pharmacy Program. Currently, patients requiring prescriptions are provided with appropriate prescription orders and Lubbock Impact Free Clinic pays for a maximum limit of three prescriptions from a list of $4 prescriptions at a local pharmacy. However, many critical medications like inhalers for asthmatic patients and insulin and supplies for diabetic patients are not on the list. In addition, many working poor or homeless patients either cannot afford to take off work or find a ride to pick up the prescriptions

The clinic pharmacy will stock and provide a broader range of critical and necessary prescription medications at a comparable/cheaper cost. In addition, having the pharmacy on site will ensure that those patients requiring prescription medication therapy will have the necessary medications on hand, prior to leaving the clinic. Furthermore, the pharmacy staff will be able to provide patients with education in all of their new and continuing home medications, as well as provide chronic disease management counseling.

The medically underserved patients that come to the free clinic often have limited contact with the health care system and therefore it is critical that all necessary and supportive services are provided to patients prior to their discharge. As with all other clinic services, all pharmacy services including prescriptions will be free to patients.