News Release

Contact:    Rebecca Sutcliffe
rsutcliffe@cphospital.org
Corporate Communications – 261-5401

October 29, 2009

CPH Physician Assistant Provides Charitable Care in India

Sandhya Parikh, a physician assistant in Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s Chemical Dependency Services, traveled to India recently to provide free medical care to indigent patients in Gujarat, India through the Shree Santram Janseva Mandir, a free and sliding-scale clinic operated by the Shree Santram Janseva Trust in Nadiad, Gujarat.

Ms. Parikh treated 50 patients in August and September. The patients visit the clinic from states throughout the northern region of India, where the state of Gujarat is located, sometimes traveling over fifteen miles on foot to reach treatment. Substance abuse is a major medical issue in Gujarat, and the poor have little access to treatment. The state has 2.6 million families living below the poverty line, despite a growing industry in information technology, according a Gujarat state government web site.

The Santram Mandir is a temple in Nadiad, Gujarat, India, dedicated to a Hindu saint who is said to have performed charitable work in Gujarat in the late 1800s. Today, the Shree Santram Janseva Trust is dedicated to continuing this tradition of charity to the poor, such as the medical clinics it operates. These clinics provide free dental, orthopedic, pediatric, and surgical treatments for polio, as well as sliding-scale fee imaging, pharmacy, and diagnostic cardiology services. The organization also provides disaster relief coordination and services, and treatment for drug and alcohol addiction.

“Gujarat state is doing well at attracting industrial investment, so it has the potential to improve its economic prospects, but alcohol and drug addictions threaten that future,” said Ms. Parikh, who was born and raised in the region. “Addiction treatment may involve weaning someone from chemical dependency, helping with underlying psychological distress, or may also involve dealing with chronic unemployment or domestic situations,” she added.

The reasons people suffer addiction are complicated, but are not really very different from what we might encounter in the US, so the treatment doesn’t vary. Access to treatment is what counts, and I was pleased to help more people get the treatment they need,” said the physician assistant.

For more information on Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s addiction recovery services, patients should contact their primary care provider, or Carolyn White, Director of Chemical Dependency Services, at (315) 261-5954. For more information about the free clinic in Gujarat province, contact Sandhya Parikh, at the same number.

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NR/09-141