Health care within reach
Responding to community need, the Family Tree Clinic offers low-cost reproductive health and family planning services to Midway neighbors.
Amelia Vnuk
Issue date: 10/14/08 Section: Local
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The Family Tree Clinic is a nonprofit community clinic that offers reproductive health and family planning services. They help men, women and teens with family planning, testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and offer an ear for people who just want to talk.
The clinic was founded in 1971 by a group of Macalester students and professors along with community activists. According to Alissa Light, the clinic coordinator, Family Tree Clinic was started in response "a strong need for a low cost community clinic."
While the Family Tree Clinic has a professional medical staff to provide services, testings and screenings, Light says they also have volunteers who have been trained to act as "patient educators" to discuss various family planning options as well as birth control options.
Light said she thinks it's important for students to know all those options.
"[There are] lots of different types of birth control methods [that can be] tailored to the individual," she said.
The Family Tree Clinic offers the combined oral contraceptive pill, commonly referred to as "the pill." They also have the Intrauterine Device (IUD) which is inserted through the cervix and placed in the uterus to prevent pregnancy. The IUD can last up to ten years. Additionally, the Family Tree Clinic offers the Implanon, which is inserted into the underarm and prevents pregnancy by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary, which is effective for three years.
Another product they offer are emergency contraceptive pills, also referred to as morning after pills, meant to be taken up to 72-hours after unprotected vaginal intercourse. Patients 18 and older may purchase emergency contraceptive pills without an appointment or prescription for $25 at the Family Tree Clinic. Patients aged 17 and under need a prescription from a doctor.
Light said the clinic doesn't require a pelvic or yearly exam to get birth control. They try to make it really easy for students who want to take advantage of their services, she said.
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