As Shepherd’s Hand Free Clinic recently noted its 20th anniversary, volunteers celebrated the outreach ministry’s past. They also envisioned what the clinic’s future will look like.

“It’s important to remain relevant and meet needs as the medical landscape changes,” said Meg Erickson, the executive director of Shepherd’s Hand Clinic.

Erickson and her husband, Dr. Jay Erickson, founded the clinic in 1995 as an outreach ministry of Christ Lutheran Church in Whitefish, where it still is based. The idea was to provide access to health care for those without medical insurance, and that remains the crux of the free clinic’s mission.

In recent years Shepherd’s Hand began offering a weekly community meal, started a wellness program and added dental services. Yet there are unmet needs, particularly in offering access to mental health services, Erickson said.

“We’ve know about the mental health need since Day 1,” she said.

With that goal in mind, Erickson said the clinic this year has been focused on providing more care for people with mental health concerns. It has recruited mental health professionals to volunteer onsite to meet with patients and connect them with community resources. An offsite therapy referral network also is being developed and psychiatrists are being recruited to volunteer at the clinic once a month to manage patients’ medications.

As a relatively small nonprofit organization, Shepherd’s Hand Clinic has the ability to fit its services as community needs may change, clinic board president Sherry Lesar noted.

“We’re very adaptable,” Lesar said.

Shawn Watts, a current board member who served as the clinic’s first board president, said the board has made a point in recent years to focus on “intentionality.”

“Over the last five years we’ve been forward-thinking and intentional how we structure” services, Watts said. “It’s about depth, not breadth. We want to be better at approaching all components of the public health system.”

Another of the clinic’s focus points this year has been to grow and fine-tune its dental program, which has involved recruiting more dental support volunteers and upgrading equipment. The donation of two new dental chairs with lights and some dental stools was a huge improvement because prior to that dentists were using headlamps for light.

“We talk about growth with a purpose,” Erickson said. “This will most certainly include growing better and deeper at what we do.”

In the coming year the clinic will add the volunteer services of local acupuncturists to its cadre of health care.

Another aspect of the clinic’s intentionality, Watts said, has been developing both the leadership and the financial structure to allow the clinic to “transition seamlessly” to future generations of caregivers.

As the recession hit the Flathead Valley hard in 2008, Shepherd’s Hand experienced a 30 percent spike in patient visits and it was clear the clinic had developed a broader community niche beyond the initial vision.

At that crossroad of providing care, the clinic began taking steps to establish sustainability. In 2010 it incorporated as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization, established a board of directors, hired Erickson as its paid director and launched an endowment program to create an additional revenue stream to offset administrative costs. The endowment has grown to more than $1 million.

This year a paid part-time clinic director and volunteer coordinator were added to the staff.

Volunteers continue to be the lifeblood of the clinic, though, with more than 200 professional medical, dental and community volunteers staffing the clinic and operating the wellness and community meal programs.

“The idea of community is a huge part of what Shepherd’s Hand is,” Erickson said.

The sense of community is evident not only among the volunteers but also in the giving. Donations range from personal checks for $25 to much larger philanthropic contributions.

Fundraising is ongoing for the clinic and takes many forms. The Pin & Brew espresso stand, for example, donates 100 percent of its profits to the clinic.

In honor of the clinic’s 20th anniversary, donations to Shepherd’s Hand will be matched dollar for dollar up to $20,000.

Equally important to financial sustainability is establishing strong leadership into the future, Erickson said. Pre-med and medical school students often spend time at the clinic to get hands-on experience in a public-health setting.

“Any time you have an opportunity to shape the next generation,” it’s important to help them understand the importance of offering a safety net for people in a safe, caring environment, she continued. “We’re hoping for that ripple effect so they’ll be inspired to help in their own community.”

For more information about Shepherd’s Hand Clinic or to donate, go online to shepherdshand.com.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.