“I loved Roots right away. This is where my passion lies. I’m working with the community and getting my patients access to equal health care.”
Mary Alvarez-Nutting
Clinical Services Manager | Roots South Bay Clinic
I’m very passionate about the community here in Oakland. Growing up, I saw how my own family had to struggle with getting equal access to things, especially health care. When I was in school, we had clinical rotations. I wanted to be in a community organization. I wanted to be able to give back and be an advocate for people who didn’t have equal access.
I loved Roots right away. This is where my passion lies. I’m working with the community and getting my patients access to equal health care.
I don’t feel like I’m alone, caring for my patients. It’s a whole team. And it’s not just about health care—it’s about everything, socioeconomic status, access to food, housing, transportation. The navigation team helps patients get where they need to go so they’re getting the right care.
To provide health care, you have to understand your community, the cultures you’re providing for. When you have a center that provides that kind of cultural responsiveness, it opens up doors for people to trust you. Health care is really about trust. People feel like we’re advocating for healthier outcomes for them, and that empowers them even more to want to be responsive to their own needs.
With whole-person health, I’m not just diagnosing you. I’m not just giving you medication. I have to look at the bigger picture of each person individually. Maybe this person has hypertension because there’s a lot of stress going on, and where’s that stress coming from? Maybe lack of money and lack of schooling, lack of supplies, lack of clothing for their children. How can we help those situations to make sure that I can improve this person’s health outcome?
Roots has been such a tremendous force for the population here. Roots empowers our community to be advocates for themselves, to understand what they are worth, what they deserve in terms of health care and in terms of living as human beings.
It doesn’t matter where you come from. We should all have access to all of these services. I love being that support, building that trust, and knowing that we are there to fight that good fight.
“To provide health care, you have to understand your community, the cultures you’re providing for. When you have a center that provides that kind of cultural responsiveness, it opens up doors for people to trust you. Health care is really about trust. People feel like we’re advocating for healthier outcomes for them, and that empowers them even more to want to be responsive to their own needs.”
“To provide health care, you have to understand your community, the cultures you’re providing for. When you have a center that provides that kind of cultural responsiveness, it opens up doors for people to trust you. Health care is really about trust. People feel like we’re advocating for healthier outcomes for them, and that empowers them even more to want to be responsive to their own needs.”
