For the most up to date information on how to serve with Watermark Urgent Care during COVID-19 head to watermark.org/engage.
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Updated: March 15, 2020
Watermark family,
As you may know, God’s provision, working through His people at Watermark, has allowed us to open two urgent care clinics, in Lake Highlands and Plano.Watermark Urgent Care reaches an average of 12,000 patients each year, but its benefit to our communities becomes even clearer in a time of crisis like this one.
Our two clinics remain open, actively serving their patient population. This includes people from Dallas’s most vulnerable communities, such as recent refugees and other immigrants, children from low-income families, and anyone without health insurance.
Here are few ways the Watermark family can serve our clinics, our staff and volunteers, and others working “on the front lines” of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Donate Items to Help Patients
Many of our patients cannot afford or access basic necessities. Others are simply facing long periods of time at home, oftentimes with children. You can help by providing essentials.
An Amazon wish list has been set up so you can serve the clinic from your home. We will also be collecting the below items at Watermark Dallas this week:
- New digital, oral thermometers
- Small, unopened packs of tissues
- Small, unopened bottles of hand sanitizer
- Items in new condition for kids (toddler through elementary) who are stuck at home:
- Puzzles
- Activity books
- Coloring books and colored pencils/crayons
- Play-Doh
- Games
- Things that promote learning
- Children’s Bibles
Items will be collected in blue bins in the lobby of the West Tower at Watermark Dallas.
We can only accept the above items, and will only be collecting items between 9 AM and 3 PM through Friday, March 20.
Encourage and Free Up Staff and Volunteers
Our clinic staff will be working hard these next few weeks, and any small way we can make their life easier will go far. For example, you can sign up to bring lunches to our Skillman Clinic or Plano Clinic.
If someone in your Community Group or a friend already serves with Watermark Urgent Care (staff or volunteer), please consider other ways to help them in the coming weeks. Are their kids unexpectedly out of school? Perhaps you could babysit. Are they working long hours? Meals are always helpful. How can you lighten their load as they serve “on the front lines” of fighting COVID-19?
If you would like to start serving at our clinics, learn about the opportunities or get started with a tour. We also have a special need for graphic designers who can help us with patient education materials at this time. If you have that skill set, email kriegel@watermarkhealth.org with some examples of your work.
Help Us Keep Reaching the Most Vulnerable
Our clinics are working to build capacity to see even more patients in the coming days and weeks. We know there will be an increase in worried, mildly ill, and seriously ill patients. We also recognize that our current volunteers may face their own difficulties that prevent them from serving in the ways they usually do. This all adds up to increased demand on our clinics.
If you already have health insurance, we would ask you refrain from visiting the clinic or reaching out to clinic staff about medical issues. This allows us to focus our limited energy, resources, and capacity on those who do not have access to health care.
We can all be thoughtful not to overload the health system unnecessarily, whether that is at Watermark Urgent Care, your doctor’s office, or local hospitals. If you are feeling sick, the Watermark Health Team suggests using a questionnaire like the one from our friends at Medical City before assuming it might be COVID-19.
Serve Others “on the Front Lines”
Beyond those serving at the Watermark Urgent Care clinics, you likely know neighbors, friends, or family involved in health care. These people are serving our cities in a special way during this time. So please consider how you might help those health care workers you are already in relationship with in order to allow them to work more or take additional rest. Here are a few ideas:
- Offer to babysit – especially if you know their children will be home unexpectedly due to school closures
- Provide a meal
- Take care of yardwork or other home needs
- Send note of encouragement
- Discover their individual needs and then meet them!
More to Come
Watermark’s External Focus Team plans to share several more ways you can “focus externally” during the days and weeks to come. We’ll keep sending out ideas through The Current and social media. This is a unique opportunity to trust the Lord, and serve our neighbors, and share the love of Christ in word and deed. Let’s go, Church!