A Right to Health, Neighborhood Health Centers in Profile (A Classic Film)
A friend recently brought to our attention the film, A Right to Health, Neighborhood Health Centers in Profile, made by the Office of Health Affairs of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) apparently in the early to mid-1970′s. This 33 minute film highlights the work of diverse Community Health Centers in the US, beginning with Montefiore’s Martin Luther King Health Center in the South Bronx.
Here is the YouTube feed of the movie:
The film is also available in a better quality download (in 2 parts) from the Prelinger Collection.
We have also posted Out in the Rural, a film about one of the first two OEO community health centers, the Tufts-Delta Health Center of North Bolivar County, Mississippi. See our media page for a link to this film and the following link for an introduction to Out in the Rural.
A Right to Health is made in the overly somber, paternalistic style of old public service announcements. Nonetheless, the voice and feeling of the communities manages to emerge. Dr. Roger O. Egeberg, then Dean of USC School of Medicne, introduces the movie stating that it “describes new ways of providing health care for the poor.” But this is a bit deceptive. The film describes ways of organizing health care services – community care, comprehensive care, team care, the use of community health workers – that suggest a broader vision of clinical care than just “poor care.” In fact, the title “A Right to Health” expresses a universal ideal that we have yet to achieve in the US.
Posted by Matt Anderson, MD
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