Reception, reading on history of Ukiah health care

On Sunday, January 29, at 2 p.m., the Grace Hudson Museum will host a free reading and reception for a new book by Ukiah writer and photographer Jendi Coursey, Perseverance & Passion: The People Who Shaped Health Care in Ukiah, California.

Photo: Author Jendi Coursey by Catherine Vibert

The book commemorates the 60th anniversary of the founding of Hillside Community Hospital, which later became Ukiah Valley Medical Center (UVMC). The project was commissioned by UVMC president, Gwen Matthews. Packed with archival black-and-white as well as contemporary color photos; fascinating and little-known anecdotes, some of which Coursey will relate; detailed research on Ukiah history and on the dizzying transformation health care delivery has undergone; and sidebars highlighting the individuals who contributed to Ukiah’s health care—doctors, nurses, administrators, and innovators—the event will be of interest to anyone who has benefited from the scientific curiosity and kindness that motivates one human being to heal another.

Perseverance & Passion got its start at a Stars restaurant in 2014 when Matthews and her husband, Sam, were studying the menu. Noticing that the history of the restaurant was printed on the back, Sam asked if the hospital had done anything similar. Realizing that it hadn’t, Gwen commissioned Coursey to write the book. Coursey, whose own son survived a bout with cancer as a baby, was instantly interested in the task. She enlisted local talent, including Theresa Whitehill and Adrienne Simpson of Colored Horse Studios on layout and design; Dr. Paul Poulos, Lisa Ray, and other members of the Mendocino County Historical Society; photographer Evan Johnson; and others.

The result is an intimate portrait of growth, struggle, and change in a place that is both like and unlike other rural communities. Rivalries were certainly personal and intense, with patients tending to remain loyal to one of three hospitals: Community Hospital, then on Bush and Low Gap where the county offices are presently located; Ukiah General Hospital, then on Dora Street; and Hillside Community Hospital, on Laws Avenue where a community clinic is presently located. (The latter two entities later merged to create the Ukiah Valley Medical Center.) Other features made Ukiah stand out. When Ukiah General opened in 1976, it was the most expensive hospital in the country because it had incorporated newly created seismic regulations. Then there was the Mendocino State Hospital, located in Talmage on the present-day site of the Buddhist temple City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which in its time resembled a city within a city. That institution, originally named Mendocino State Asylum for the Insane, closed in 1972 as part of a wave of deinstitutionalization initiated by Ronald Reagan, who was governor of California at the time.

Writing the book “helped me crystallize why I love this place so much,” Coursey reflects. Ukiah’s rural setting and tendency to attract creative people has produced “this can-do spirit. People don’t whine about what could be done for them; they just go out and do it. It’s a special place where we take care of our own.” Whereas in a big city, primary care doctors could refer patients with complex medical problems to specialists, local doctors have had to figure things out without help. “In Ukiah, look in the mirror, buddy, that’s who you’ve got to help you.” Doctors have been asked to handle everything from an earache to injuries resulting from being gored by a bull. The interpersonal connection between healer and patient has always been central to Ukiah’s community ethos.

That emphasis on personal contact, along with the can-do spirit and a fierce independence, has remained the same in the time period the book covers, while so much else has changed. Coursey notes that health care progressed from doctors sitting with patients while they died because they had so little to offer in terms of technology or medication to the fantastic array of procedures and techniques that has extended contemporary Americans’ life spans. “Nurses went from holding instruments and ‘Can I get you a cup of coffee, doctor?’ to being incredibly well-trained professionals in their own right,” Coursey adds, noting that both Gwen Matthews and Heather Van Housen, the President and Vice President of the hospital, are nurses. The list of health practitioners who innovated in and improved the Ukiah Valley’s health care is long, and includes Dr. Robert Warra, who helped set up a hospice system for end-of-life care; Lynn Meadows, who started a birth center to provide women with alternatives to a hospital-centered birth; Mendocino College faculty member Dan Jenkins, who helped start the nursing program at the College that has become one of the most successful in the state; and Dr. Mimi Doohan, who practices what is called “street medicine,” bringing health care directly to the people who need it most in such settings as the Plowshares community kitchen.

Perseverance and Passion ends with a look forward at the future of Ukiah’s health care. After so many decades of technological breakthroughs, the trend now is moving back toward a more personal approach that treats the patient as a whole person, and on preventive care. Alternative techniques such as color therapy and aromatherapy are being introduced. Also, like many rural areas, Ukiah struggles with a severe physician shortage. Some specialists practice in such a narrow part of the medical field that the Ukiah Valley does not have enough patients to support them, while primary care physicians often find themselves underpaid and overworked. “Doctors aren’t making widgets,” Coursey reminds us. “They’re healing humans, and that’s a lot of weight to carry. Many who have chosen to pursue a long career here have made a choice about how to practice medicine and what’s most important to them.” As Dr. Jim Withers, founder of street medicine put it, “The only way we solve problems is to treat others the way we want to be treated and demand that that’s who we are.”

Article by Roberta Werdinger.

The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah and is a part of the City of Ukiah’s Community Services Department. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm and Sunday from noon to 4:30 pm.  For more information please go to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org or call 467-2836.

Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House
431 South Main Street, Ukiah, CA 95482