July 12, 2025 • 50 mins
Reflecting on Hurricane Helene, the deadliest and costliest hurricane in North Carolina's history, recovery efforts are expected to span years. Amid the devastation, stories of resilience shine through. Karen Wallace-Meigs, Executive Director of the Western Carolina Medical Society, recounts their organization's impactful response. Through a robust philanthropic mission and diverse service programs, patients in need received vital support, including access to free medical and specialty care, along with language interpretation services post-storm and into the future.
Host: Jean Fisher Brinkley, Communications Director, North Carolina Medical Board
Guest: Karen Wallace-Meigs, Executive Director of the Western Carolina Medical Society
Producer: Sylvia French-Hodges, Communications Specialist, North Carolina Medical Board
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (00:00):
Earlier this year, the National Weather
Service predicted a busyhurricane season for the
Atlantic Basin with as many as19 named storms.
While some of these will remaintropical depressions, up to 10
(00:21):
of 2025's predicted tempests areexpected to be full-blown
hurricanes.
We are already on storm numberthree, Chantel.
That particular storm, whichmade landfall in South Carolina
as a tropical depression, stillmanaged to flood Moore County
into a state of emergency whenit blew through North Carolina.
It's an excellent time to thinkahead and prepare for the worst
(00:43):
if the next storm blows in thedirection of your home, or if
you are a medical professional,your practice.
This is Jean Fisher Brinkley,Communications Director for the
North Carolina Medical Board,and this is MedBoard Matters.
On this episode of the podcast,We are remembering last year's
devastating Hurricane Helene,which hit Western North Carolina
(01:04):
in late September of 2024.
Helene smashed all previousrecords in North Carolina and
currently ranks as the state'sdeadliest and costliest
hurricane of all time.
What made Helene especiallydifficult was where she hit.
Western North Carolina, beingpretty far inland, rarely sees
significant hurricane damage.
(01:25):
But Helene was like nothinganyone had seen before, and
pretty much no one was prepared.
It wasn't something anyonecould have prepared for, says my
guest, Karen Wallace-Meigs.
Karen is executive director ofthe Western Carolina Medical
Society, the professionalmembership group for physicians
and PAs in 16 Western NorthCarolina counties.
(01:47):
The organization has a strongphilanthropic mission, with
service programs that helppatients in need access free
medical and specialty care, aswell as free language
interpretation services.
I spoke with Karen a while agoabout her experiences with the
Western Carolina Medical Societyduring and after Hurricane
Helene.
Please note that ourconversation was recorded in
(02:09):
late May, so some circumstancesmay have changed since we spoke.
I think you'll find the storycompelling and informative just
the same.
Karen, thank you so much forjoining me here today.
I really appreciate your time.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (02:27):
Thank you so much.
I'm glad to be here.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (02:29):
Now, as you know, I've asked you here
today for us to check in allthese months after Hurricane
Helene hit Western NorthCarolina.
But I always like to begin aconversation like this by asking
my guests to just introducethemselves a
Karen Wallace-Meigs (02:43):
Absolutely.
Thank you.
I am Karen Wallace-Meigs, theExecutive Director of Western
Carolina Medical Society.
I started this position in Juneof 2024, so it's been, I'd say,
a little bit of a busy severalmonths here.
I have lived all over the stateof North Carolina, grew up in
(03:03):
southeastern North Carolina,spent many years in the Triangle
area and moved to western NorthCarolina.
almost 22 years ago.
And my background is ineducation, nonprofit management,
and fundraising.
So I've been very fortunate tolive across our beautiful state.
And I think you'll find I havequite a story to tell today.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (03:26):
I am looking forward to it.
First, I understand that theWestern North Carolina Medical
Society is a little bitdifferent than a lot of other
medical societies.
I wondered if you could justsort of describe your model, how
your medical society works.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (03:41):
Absolutely.
We are unlike any other medicalsociety, I think, in the United
States.
So we have 685 members spreadacross 16 westernmost counties
of North Carolina.
And with that, we are trulytheir philanthropic arm.
I don't do a ton of advocacywork, but we are their, as I
(04:03):
said, their philanthropic arm,and that's my favorite part.
It's what attracted me to theposition.
So we have multiple programs.
We do have a health healerprogram so that our members,
physicians and physiciansassistants, can get six brief
therapy or coaching appointmentsper year.
And then reduce therapy afterthat.
That's in response to a veryhigh suicide rate nationwide
(04:25):
among care providers.
We want to take good care ofthose folks.
So we have Healthy Healer.
But our signature program isProject Access.
Project Access serves thoseindividuals who do not qualify
for Medicaid and do nototherwise have insurance.
And we coordinate freespecialty care for them.
(04:46):
That program will be 30 yearsold next year.
It was the first of its kind inthe United States.
It's been replicated.
Yes, we are so proud of that.
Last year, we had 1,480patients.
And again, those are people whoMedicaid expansion didn't touch
them.
We had people before,obviously, who also didn't have
(05:09):
Medicaid.
Medicaid expansion hit awonderful 650,000 people in this
state, but we have folks who donot qualify.
So we coordinated $400,000 infree specialty care.
I cannot say enough about ourmedical partners, hospitals,
medical practices who donatetheir time.
We make sure that those folkscan get to the doctor with
(05:33):
transportation.
We help pay for medications.
So that's Project Access.
I love that program.
It was the main thing growingup in southeastern North
Carolina with a mother who hadcancer.
And we would have to crosscounty lines to get care.
And knowing what that did to myfamily financially, that was
really what drew me to thisposition.
(05:54):
Part of that, and even anextension beyond that, is we run
the largest interpreter networkin western North Carolina.
By that, I can tell you we didalmost 7,000 appointments last
year, 6,700 appointments plus in38 different languages.
(06:16):
So 38 different languages.
We can send our project accesspatients to the doctor and every
project access patient can havea free interpreter so that they
can communicate with theirdoctor in a language they
understand.
It's powerful.
And I have powerful storiesabout that.
(06:36):
I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (06:37):
That could be a whole podcast on its own.
I was just going to ask youwhere you get your interpreters.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (06:42):
Everywhere.
We recruit from schools,community fairs, advertise.
But for example, my Koreaninterpreter, I bring up from
Georgia and I pay the mileage.
They are all contractedemployees with us and community
members.
That program is 20 years oldthis year.
Obviously, they can interpretin other medical practices, not
(07:06):
just for project accesspatients, sometimes for some
other events, such as when wehad the community event, when we
were finally able to gettogether in downtown Asheville
after Hurricane Helene.
But primarily, they do medicalappointments.
So special training, specialcertifications.
And one of the languages isalso American Sign Language for
(07:26):
the deaf.
So we have ASL.
Yeah, that's great.
So Project WIN, which is ourinterpreter program, supports
Project Access and otherprograms.
We do scholarship programs forhigh school seniors who complete
a one-semester internship atMAHEC, which is our local AHEC
in the mountains.
We want to encourage homegrownmedical personnel in various
(07:49):
fields.
So we do small scholarships forhigh school seniors who do
that.
We run a colorectal cancerscreening program, and we are
very proud of that program.
It's one of our newer ones.
It's run by Dr.
Michael Newcomer, and it'sincredible to know how many, it
really, colorectal cancer isbecoming more and more prevalent
(08:11):
among people under age 40.
So last year, we saw 391patients across 13 counties.
We provided 29 freecolonoscopies after doing fit
tests for the other 391.
And those were all our majorprograms, but Hurricane Helene
(08:33):
threw us also into emergencyrelief.
And we had been providingemergency relief for the last
several months to meet socialdeterminants of health.
So that could be anything frompaying your utilities, putting
groceries on the table, topaying rent.
We did all ofthis with a staff of 10. I'm about to add my 11th person, but we've done all of this with a staff of 10 and uh...its pretty much been around the clock, so...
Jean Fisher Brinkley (08:51):
Thank you very much
for that overview. I know we're going to get to talking about this, but that last program you mentioned, the direct assistance program, that actually grew out of Hurricane Helene, correct?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (09:12):
It did.
We had said last fall before ithit, we knew we needed to do
emergency assistance given thepopulation we serve.
But when you have somethinglike that hit, which is a
thousand year storm and soutterly devastating, it became a
necessity, an immediatenecessity, and it will be
(09:33):
something we continue.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (09:36):
So late September, the news is
forecasting this massive,massive storm.
Pretty soon it becomes clearthat it is headed straight for
western North Carolina.
Where were you and what wereyou doing?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (09:48):
It really wasn't clear to all of us.
We knew there was going to berain, but it really wasn't clear
to all of us what was coming.
And we've heard sometimes, whydidn't more people evacuate?
Well, because nothing like thishad ever happened before.
The last three days of themonth, it was pouring, or I
guess the 26th, 27th.
(10:10):
And ironically, this is kind ofa personal note, ironically, I
realized I was having a dentalissue.
And apparently had had anabscess.
So as it poured rain onWednesday night of that week, my
dentist is like, you know, Idon't know if we're going to be
able to get downtown tomorrow.
(10:30):
Let me call in an antibioticfor you.
And my husband drove in thepouring rain and the pharmacy
stayed open late.
And I got an antibiotic.
Well, it's a good thing.
Yes, absolutely.
The next day and nonprofitfolks all over the state will
get this.
The next day I was writing agrant all day long and it was
pouring and I got it turned inlate day.
(10:52):
The next morning I woke up andthe power was out and it had
truly hit overnight.
So our team was thinking we'regoing to need an emergency fund
going forward.
I had been adamant that weneeded to spread out to more
counties, that we needed projectaccess in more counties, more
people needed our help.
We needed to find moreproviders who would help us
(11:16):
across county lines.
It was part of what I waswriting the grant for.
And then it hits.
And I have to tell you, thefirst day or two, I didn't know
how bad it was.
And it was tough.
You could look at thisneighborhood.
My neighborhood, for the mostpart, looked great.
You could look at thisneighborhood.
It looked great.
The next one wasn't.
(11:36):
Phone service was spotty.
I couldn't get my daughters,who were back in the triangle
for school, on the phone.
So internet gone.
Street lights out.
You know, you think, okay,you'll go get some gas.
You had to have cash.
When the grocery store is open,I'll go get food.
To start with, you had to havecash.
ATMs do not work.
(11:57):
in that situation.
So in modern life, with all ofour conveniences and here, let
me get my debit card, peopleweren't prepared.
Jean Fisher Brinkle (12:06):
Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (12:07):
You got to see people, you know, people
would hand each other the cashin their pockets and say, pay it
forward.
And it was pretty amazing.
I mean, that happened to us.
And somebody paid forward to myhusband, wouldn't give the
name.
And then a few days later, myhusband paid forward and the kid
at the next gas pump happenedto have graduated with one of my
daughters.
So that was whatwas pretty immediately.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (12:29):
As you speak, I guess, absolutely.
How would you know, right?
Because power was out.
You didn't have news.
Phones didn't work, right?
Because the satellites weredown.
And yeah, wow.
Okay.
So you mentioned you have astaff of 10.
You were writing a grant thevery next day.
Where was everybody else?
And how quickly did you sort ofspring into action with all of
(12:52):
your service programs?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (12:54):
That part kind of makes me emotional
recalling it.
It took me probably five or sixdays to account for all of my
employees.
One of them had had their homesplit down the middle as they
ran out with their pets.
And the insurance companyrelocated them, and thankfully
they had insurance, butrelocated them to Greenville,
South Carolina, which is an houraway.
(13:15):
It took several days.
And as soon as we knew, thefirst thing I said is we have to
start calling all of thepractices and see what's going
on.
At some point, I was contactedby the North Carolina Medical
Society on behalf of you all,the North Carolina Medical Board
to say
Jean Fisher Brinkley (13:33):
Right.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (13:33):
Any information you can get, please
get to us.
We need to know.
And we started callingpractices.
And for the most part, it wasjust lovely to hear people's
voices.
You know, people were tryingtheir very best trying to get
back on.
Nobody had clean water in manyspaces.
We formed toilet brigades whereyou had to go get water from
wherever you could get it justto flush your toilet.
(13:55):
if you weren't on well water.
So it was a fascinatingexperience, but we started doing
that.
So we started from our homes.
As soon as we could get anyinternet or phone service, we
were calling practices, fillingout forms, reporting that back
to people, giving interviewslike this to various groups, and
(14:17):
simply trying to figure outwhere we needed to be.
And I cannot say enough aboutpeople all over the state and
all over this country who cameto us.
I think people pretty much knowWorld Central Kitchen came into
town.
Many groups came and are stillcoming.
Groups of Amish folks coming tohelp rebuild towns, various
(14:37):
people, but I saw, because I'velived all over this state, it
made me emotional every time.
So many fire rescue police carscoming from all over the state
and Vermont, you know, otherstates.
And you would look and youwould see where they were from.
And they were in there indangerous situations.
(14:59):
But we quickly knew we neededthe emergency fund in place.
Also, we immediately wrote andgot a grant to expand our
Healthy Healer program becausethey were facing just the
hardest road ahead, taking careof people who were absolutely
traumatized while many of themwere traumatized at home in that
(15:22):
work.
Jean Fisher Brinkle (15:23):
Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (15:23):
So people responded beautifully to that.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (15:26):
So, I'm interested in, given what you've
said about how important it wasto have cash, I mean, you could
see for yourself just from yourpersonal experience and from
talking with others, howdifficult it was just to do
basic daily things like puttinggas in the car, getting food,
flushing the toilet, things thatwe take for granted.
And you'd seen how difficultthat was.
So you knew the importance ofhaving assets that you could
(15:48):
trade with so you could get whatyou needed.
Did you provide cash to peopleor how did it work?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (15:54):
Yeah.
We've provided, and I stillhave folks doing that, we have
spent about $40,000 and we hadto come up with the best ways we
could do it.
So you find new partners.
We found a group that was doinga lot of rental assistance.
So they had almost a triagecenter and they brought people
(16:16):
in, did interviews, and wepartnered with them to do rental
support because Asheville,prior to this, was the single
most expensive place in thestate to live.
And so people lost their jobsfor weeks on end.
Some aren't back yet.
And so what we did was we founda partner to do the rental
(16:36):
support.
Then we obviously had funds,the North Carolina Medical
Society Association, which isessentially spouses of people
with the North Carolina MedicalSociety, members of that they
gave us funds and said anybodywho's in a jam help them and
then some people said well onlyfor your project access patients
(16:57):
because they are already sovulnerable so we were running
multiple funds that's quite aaccounting undertaking there but
we were running multiple fundswe started reaching out to
project we had to find part ofour project access patients some
of them had moved some were inshelters you know but people's
housing literally went down whathad been a little creek now
(17:20):
became a raging river.
And so we were having to findpeople.
We figured we give people moneyfor transportation if they need
it to get to the doctor.
We also figured out we could goto our federally qualified
health centers.
And we, I think it was 10,000,I believe in gas cards alone,
that we got to federallyqualified health centers so they
(17:43):
could get people to the doctor,project access patients and
otherwise.
We handed out $500 food cardsto our project access patients.
Again, in so many ways, youdon't have a job, you can't buy
groceries.
What do you do?
How do you choose between yourmedicine, your light bill, if
you've got your lights back onand that?
(18:04):
And I would like to just say atthis juncture now, if you come
visit us and we're a touristarea, we hope you'll come visit.
But what you see in one areamay not reflect what is
otherwise true.
We've got people in fooddeserts and we're more than
seven months out.
And this is in the state ofNorth Carolina.
(18:25):
I think that's important toknow.
But we did a lot withutilities.
We had a pregnant woman with notransportation and her phone
was about to be turned offbecause she couldn't make the
phone bill.
And this is, what, $140 we wereable to pay that because you
clearly can't have a pregnantwoman at home alone without a
phone and no way to getsomewhere.
(18:47):
So there have been a lot ofdifferent ways that we've
supported.
And then we've just found theneed to pay for more and more
medication, too.
So it became a multi-prongedapproach using new community
partners, working even morestrongly with our federally
qualified health centers than weever have before.
(19:07):
Right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (19:38):
realize that this was something that
needed to continue even afterthe hurricane.
Although to hear you talk, it'sclear that there are still
after effects that are affectingmany communities there.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (19:48):
Yes, thank you.
We're still responding to thehurricane.
But as I was saying, we knewthat we had such a vulnerable
population we served to beginwith that we really needed to be
moving in that direction.
We knew that cognitively beforethe storm, but this proved it
to us.
(20:09):
So I don't know that there wasany one moment after the storm,
just as you continue to see theneed.
And working with thispopulation.
So what we're doing now is weare hiring a community health
worker to really address thesocial determinants of health,
to make sure that folks areconnected with other services in
(20:30):
the community, communitypartners, or that, okay, we got
you to the doctor.
You know, we've had whateverspecialty care you need, but do
you have food?
Do you have safe housing?
How can we do that?
So we're excited.
One of the things that wereally born of this, there was a
mobile clinic working with theunhoused population.
(20:52):
And one of my employees, Julie,who is so community oriented,
left her home in West Ashevilleand went to help at this mobile
clinic, kind of a pop up in aparking lot during the storm.
And through thoserelationships, we've decided,
OK, the mobile clinic is goingto keep going.
(21:13):
We needed it anyway.
So we're going to help thempurchase an A1C reading machine.
And then we're going to getbaseline readings for folks who
come into the clinic, connectthem with food boxes, and then
be able to do A1C testing againto see how that goes.
But we're doing more to connectpeople with the healthy food
(21:35):
resources, get it delivered tothem.
Public transportation was anissue to begin with before all
of this.
And by the way, road closuresfor months.
I mean, we had so many roadsdown, people were having to make
handmade signs.
The state didn't even haveenough signs and couldn't get to
us to get them out.
So when you're thinking aboutall the multiple transportation
(21:57):
issues, if I can have someonededicated to, do you have these
other needs met to get youthrough?
As healthy as we possibly can,hopefully optimally healthy, but
as healthy as we possibly can.
Are we meeting that?
Are we connecting you to theservices?
Do you have healthy food thatyou can access?
So if we need to take it toyou.
So that's why we're hiring thatcommunity health worker.
(22:19):
It's also, and I have to saythis, it's made us look at
things differently.
as well as some of ourcommunity partners.
We've signed a three-year MOUwith a wonderful community
agency, All Souls CounselingCenter.
And now all of our ProjectAccess patients for the next
three years can access freetherapy.
(22:42):
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it's great that theagreement is if they feel they
need it, we can refer them toit.
They can make a call and theycan have this free therapy.
And very often after an eventlike this, it's six months, a
year or more later before ithits, because we are working on
adrenaline to begin with.
(23:02):
Everybody, they can access thisfree care.
And I don't even need areferral from a primary care
provider for that.
You need it.
There it is.
Let's get it to you.
So it's been a truly, as Isaid, multi-pronged approach,
but we were feeling it.
I mean, we were feeling theanxiety.
I have always wanted to live bya lake my entire life.
(23:24):
I'm rethinking that after this.
But the thing is, as we'rethinking through all of this,
we're trying to think, whatwould we need?
What does somebody need?
And then we're listening,trying to really listen in our
client's native tongue to seewhat's truly needed.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (23:43):
Wow.
I'm absorbing everything thatyou just said.
For listeners who may not knowthe term social determinants of
health, would you just brieflydefine what it is that you're
talking about and why that fitsin with an organization like
yours?
Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (23:57):
I always think that's an important thing.
So thank you for giving me theopportunity to explain that.
I'll give you an example.
So we recently had a patientwho had breast cancer.
They had no insurance, didn'tqualify for Medicaid.
So we helped them.
We coordinated for them withour providers, free, obviously,
(24:17):
mastectomy, then freereconstructive surgery.
But in talking to this woman,we found out she simply didn't
have enough food at home.
And she was going to have tochoose between food, medication,
rent.
And How is she supposed to getbetter?
And will she ever truly getbetter?
(24:38):
And even if she were to somehowget around then her cancer.
then, you know, is she evergoing to be truly healthy and
trying to figure out.
So we were able to connect herwith those food resources.
That's a social determinant ofhealth, your shelter, your food,
you know, all of those things.
Do you have the things to makeit through life in a healthy
(25:00):
way?
We were able to connect her andI'm so thankful and happy to
say that she is doing well.
She is healthy and her life insome ways has improved beyond
what it was before thatdiagnosis.
And again, we're thecoordinators.
We're kind of conduits here,but we're not the doctors and
(25:21):
the community places providingall of that.
I cannot say enough about theproviders who gave her the care
she needed, and then we wereable to connect her with that
food.
It not only changes her life,When you meet a social
determinant of health like that,it changes the trajectory of a
(25:41):
family.
I mean, if you can't affordfood, what about the kids in the
house?
If you can't afford the rent,then everybody's out.
And when kids are out ofschool, they actually lose
learning.
So it's something that we knewwe were going to need to do.
We just didn't know how fast wewere going to have to put that
together.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (26:00):
Well, thank you for addressing that.
Yeah.
So what were the busiestprograms during the immediate
aftermath of Helene?
You've talked about this newarea, social determinants of
health, talked a little bitabout Project Access, and you
mentioned healthy healers.
I don't imagine there was awhole lot of activity in colon
cancer screening, given the morepressing
Karen Wallace-Meigs (26:19):
needs.
Right.
Slowed a bit there with that.
I think, first of all, you'vegot to find your people, your
clients, your providers.
So we were really busy makingthose phone calls to practices,
seeing what was their situation.
Were they up?
Were they running?
What about their staff?
What about any number ofthings?
Did they have electric?
(26:40):
Did they have clean water?
Getting back to my story aboutmy dentist, for example, my
dentist wound up in anothertown.
So, P.S., I didn't see thedentist for another three
months.
And when I did, I had a raginginfection, which made me
understand that Our clients, allthe better.
(27:01):
We were calling, trying to findout about that.
We were trying to get the moneyraised as quickly as possible.
So my development person wasreally working around the clock,
as was I.
We were trying to get money inthe door and tell the story, as
I am now, so that people wouldrespond so we could get money in
the door to give out.
in a program we had never done.
(27:22):
We had to put parameters aroundthat.
How much per person, perfamily, how are we going to do
this?
What information did we need?
And how are we going to accountfor it to make sure that we
were good stewards?
Those were things that had tohappen and had to happen almost
overnight.
So the first time we went tobuy gas cards, that's not
(27:44):
something we normally do.
And we jammed down the creditcards.
Okay.
wait, let's go the other way,deal with the bank and write
checks.
And now people know what we'redoing and how we're doing it.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (27:58):
Going back to, I'm just curious sort of
what you found when you weredoing that outreach to your
members and reaching out withpractices.
If you had to estimate whatpercentage of people were
affected in some material wayamong your members by the storm?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (28:15):
A percentage would be hard for me
to give you.
I would say many, manypractices were.
A great many practices did nothave water.
They had the same problem Ihad.
They were trying to find theiremployees and they were
frightened.
When they would find theiremployees, in some cases, those
employees were going throughtheir own housing issues,
(28:35):
transportation.
I mean, you know, cars smashedby trees.
And so it was hard.
And, you know, for months,Mayhek had porta-potties out in
the parking lot.
So that went on.
But I was also amazed at theresilience.
And people seemed grateful tohear from us.
(28:57):
And I say that thinking back,one of our federally qualified
health centers, so many of thoseplaces run with emeritus docs.
volunteers.
And one of our FQHCs lost apharmacist who died in the
storm.
That's hard.
It's hard on the remaining,their family and the remaining
(29:20):
staff.
And yet to see people rally, Imean, many, many practices were
back up in some form or anotherpretty quickly.
That does not mean that they donot still need help with
buildings and staffing and wedidn't have enough primary care
providers anyway, especially inrural areas, but people's
(29:43):
resilience.
And I sign almost every emailnow standing together for a
healthier community.
And resilient
Jean Fisher Brinkley (29:56):
Western North Carolina.
That's been impressive.
(30:17):
be able to direct patients tocare.
And we were very happy to help,grateful to have something that
we could do that was tangiblein that way.
But, you know, just in my verysmall role in getting that
directory up and running andwatching the data come in, it
was amazing to read in thecomments the things that people
(30:38):
were saying that they're like,no power, no water.
Yes, we're seeing patients inthe parking lot.
And it was just seeing entryafter entry, not just individual
physicians or individualmedical practices we had.
hospitals, healthcarefacilities, dialysis clinics,
you know, we pretty much anybodywho was open in the realm of
healthcare, we allowed them tobe in the directory.
(30:59):
And it was just amazing to seehow many people had really
experienced some verysignificant interruption to
their normal way of doingbusiness.
And yet they were out theretrying to take care of patients.
So it really was, obviouslydidn't see it with my own eyes,
but that was our little windowinto seeing what was going on in
(31:21):
Western North Carolina.
And it really was inspiring tosee our licensees really doing
everything they could to takecare of their patients.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (31:29):
You know, when you fan your face so you
don't cry, that's what I'm doingwhile you're talking.
Because, I mean, there were Dr.
Bill Hathaway, I would hear heruns Mayhek here, and he would
be on the road going up tofarther out counties.
in Western North Carolina withgroups of people to meet needs.
Yes, there were peoplepracticing in parking lots.
(31:52):
And I know for a fact thatthere were people doing, if they
couldn't do anything else, itwas almost like a first aid
center, like last road betweenNorth Carolina and Tennessee or
North Carolina and Virginia thatwas open.
And they would almost just haveband-aids and supplies and try
to look at people and try to sayif they needed something more.
(32:14):
And sometimes at the same timebe handing out water, food,
clothing, whatever they cantake.
It was amazing seeing howpeople rallied together in so
many different ways.
But the medical community, andI tell my board this and our
membership, I am proud.
awed by what they do for allthe things that you hear about
(32:37):
medical care, sometimes good andbad in the way it works in this
country.
The hearts were amazing.
I mean, the effort people putin, truly.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (32:47):
That makes me think of your Healthy
Healers program.
You increased the availability,you said, of therapy to
providers.
Did they take you up on that?
Did Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (33:00):
I'm glad to hear that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Running through that fundinglike crazy.
And let me say that'sconfidential.
I nor none of my staff, the waywe've got it set up, that it's
just the healer, the patient inthis case, and the therapist
know who.
The only single piece that I dohave is the main folks taking
(33:21):
us up on it were our residents,our medical interns.
And that was interestingbecause we would love for them
to stay in Western NorthCarolina.
We want to keep them.
What a trial by fire.
If you're just out of medicalschool and you come, yeah, and
you have that happen.
But we were thrilled.
They have taken us up on it.
It's a program we have had forsome time now.
(33:43):
But yes, it was definitelyused.
That was Western North CarolinaBridge Foundation who really
said, yeah, we're interested ingiving you more money right now
for this, knowing that this is aparticular issue.
And we're just so grateful forthat.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (33:59):
Right.
Well, how great that you werealready there, well-established,
ready to receive that money andimmediately turn around and
make those services available.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (34:06):
The hardest, greatest honor of my
professional life has been thislast seven plus months.
Yeah.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (34:13):
You know, I was going to ask you how going
through all of this changedyour organization.
You've talked about, gave you anew program, you know, fifth
program, the social determinantsof health.
What other changes would yousay?
And feel free, personalchanges, your own feeling about
your work and life, but also theorganization.
How did the society changebecause of this?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (34:35):
Well, you're right.
It's changed so that we'regoing to do more social
determinants of health work, andthat's the right thing to do.
It was going to be the rightthing to do, but it certainly
is.
But I think what it made us allmore aware of is how much we
need our community partners.
to both expand that careprovider base for Project
(34:57):
Access, but also other communitypartners, perhaps food
networks.
As I said, the mental healthcare with All Souls Counseling,
you know, for our patients.
And we wound up really havingto find, okay, who else can help
us be able to clearly andmethodically go through these
requests for help and getsupport, get money, get whatever
(35:21):
is needed to the people whoneed it most.
So I hadn't thought a lot aboutthe police department with our
work, but they called me andthey collected all of this
equipment, durable medicalequipment, which is not cheap
and wasn't easy to get.
because it was hard initiallyfor people to get to us.
They brought it all to us.
(35:42):
And then, as I mentioned, myemployee, Julie, Julie's out
there getting it out there topeople.
It gave us so manyopportunities to find new
partners and partnerships sothat as we go forward, we can
not only respond to emergenciesbetter, we can respond to the
day-in, day-out lives of ourclients better.
(36:04):
And so I can't say enough aboutthose community partners.
The day, I guess the day beforethe storm, I was supposed to go
visit Bounty in Seoul, which isa food program in Black
Mountain, North Carolina.
I haven't got there yet, but,you know, we knew we needed to
do that.
And the reason I haven't gotthere yet is they and we have
been blasted trying to getthrough this.
(36:27):
But it was just so good to beable to reach out and explore
new ways that you can work witha bounty and soul or a man of
food bank, all souls counseling.
Is it a house of faith that weneed to work with?
And so we were able to lookacross so many different sectors
to figure out how can we getthe care we need to the people
(36:49):
we need to get it to.
And in some ways, when yourprograms, you know, we started
as a society for doctors in themountains in 1885.
Project Access, which, as Isaid, has been replicated many
times, but is almost 30 yearsold.
In some ways, in the nonprofitworld, we're not shiny and new,
(37:09):
but it's let us reclaim ourvision, our shared goals.
of equitable access to healthcare for everyone and find new
partners who care about that andwork on it together in a more
holistic way.
So I think that this six, sevenmonths has changed us in many
(37:31):
ways for the better.
And it's given us new ways tothink about our work and what we
need to do.
Yeah.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (37:39):
So you've made more connections.
It sounds like you're strongerthan ever.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (37:42):
In so many ways, I feel like we are.
And that is...
Absolutely.
Let me say we've had somebeautiful leadership here in the
past.
We've just not had a situationlike this that called us to be
better in a way that maybe wehadn't thought about before.
As I said, this has not beeneasy, but I am so grateful to
(38:05):
the folks who work alongside me.
Those other nine people, I'd bein any trench with them.
And And my board for beingvisionary and saying, do what
you need to do, because howgreat is that?
It has given me truly seven ofthe most difficult months of my
(38:25):
professional life, but seven ofthe most rewarding.
And I've had a great career.
So it's been really amazing.
And to see people grow in theirpositions to the folks I work
alongside every day, to see themgrow in their positions and
think, how can we do thisbetter?
How can we make this projectaccess application better and
faster and get to what we needto know?
(38:46):
It used to be you were only inproject access for six months
and you had to renew.
Now you're in it for 12 months.
And we made it streamlined.
How can we make it make moresense?
You know, have it in multiplelanguages, all of that.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (39:01):
And these were things that came out of
seeing the need firsthand?
Yes.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (39:05):
Absolutely.
And moving it, moving itfaster, seeing we need to be
more responsive every day.
And we certainly need to bewhen something like this
happens, because you've got tofind the silver lining.
There are still days and roadwill open up and I'll go down it
for the first time and cry.
And my kids couldn't come homefor months because we didn't
(39:29):
have clean water.
My oldest daughter came backhome.
And we went down a roadtogether for the first time.
And she said, they should havefilmed The Last of Us here.
It looks apocalyptic.
Oh, wow.
This is six and a half monthsafter the storm, when people
have worked their backsides offto get it to look that good and
get the road open.
So it's really been, it changesyou personally, but it also has
(39:54):
given us a chance to change inways that we needed to change
and be more responsive.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (39:59):
So what would you say are the most
pressing areas of continuingneed in Western North Carolina
right now?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (40:06):
Housing was an issue beforehand.
Housing remains one.
I serve on the long-termrecovery group for Buncombe
County.
We were told about a month anda half ago that we still have
1,000 completely destroyed orbasically uninhabitable homes in
my community, small communityof Fairview.
It's 23.
That is a true socialdeterminant of health.
(40:28):
If you do not have a safe placeto be.
It floored me when I washearing people are holding parts
of their homes together withduct tape.
And I heard about an elderlycouple who had to duct tape the
ceiling to keep the elementsfrom falling on them in their
bed at night.
We just went through winter inthe mountains, folks.
That gets cold.
So housing is a huge issue.
(40:50):
We still need tourism dollarsif you want to come into town.
But for some people, it's foodif they're in a food desert.
Certainly a living wage sofolks can meet those social
determinants of health, be ittheir rent, their food, their
transportation.
But medical remains an issue.
As I said, it was.
(41:12):
We had the lowest uninsuredrate in the state.
We need Medicaid expansion tocontinue.
Imagine my program if Medicaidexpansion falters.
I'm going to be swamped, justswamped.
And I need to be able to findmore providers.
So my staff and I are workingtowards that goal, finding more
providers.
(41:32):
But we want to take care of ourfolks.
And we're doing that, all of ustogether, not just Western
Carolina Medical Society, all ofus working together to that in
the very best way we can.
And I'm grateful for everythingeveryone's done for us, but
asking not to forget us.
It's complicated in many placesstill.
(41:53):
We are remote and we've gotroads out.
We still have damaged areas,damaged businesses where people
couldn't go back to work.
So it's not a seven-monthprocess.
This is going to be amulti-year and very expensive
process.
Jean Fisher Brinkle (42:12):
Absolutely.
I was just going to say, whatis next, do you think, for your
organization?
Are you going to continue togrow?
You're going to write moregrants, find more partners.
What do you see on the horizon?
All of the above.
We are
Karen Wallace-Meigs (42:26):
writing grants.
We are trying, you know, I'mkind of in a position of, do I
try to cross more county lines,which was my goal?
Do I wait and see what's goingto happen with Medicaid
expansion?
And will I be swamped in whereI already am?
So we will write more grants.
We are hiring this communityhealth worker.
We are really advertising andpushing for more interpreters.
(42:50):
We're looking at all of this inany number of myriad ways that
any nonprofit would look at whatthey're doing.
How can we find more, not onlyhealthcare providers, but
community partners to which wecan make referrals?
So we're looking at all ofthat.
I have to tell you pre-stormthat When somebody says, well,
(43:11):
you know, what about thisinterpreting and medical and how
necessary is it?
We got an emergency call from ahospital saying there's a woman
here.
She's very, very upset.
She needs to make finaldecisions for her husband.
This is irreversible.
He's not going to come around.
She can't understand a wordwe're saying, and we don't know
(43:33):
what to say, and she'shysterical.
Well, given, that was fair.
We managed to figure out whatlanguage and get an interpreter
there.
And in the worst moment of herlife, we had someone there in
her native tongue.
It did not change the outcomeat all, but she was able to feel
like someone was there for her.
(43:55):
make decisions she had to make,understand what was being said
to her.
And what struck me so deeply atthe end of that day, I had some
really sad staff.
As you can understand, it wasdifficult.
And what I said to her is whatI just said to you.
We were there for her at theworst moment of her life.
(44:16):
We couldn't change anything.
Maybe that made it a little bitbetter, but at least she had
that dignity of hearing somebodyin her native tongue.
That was important.
And we've seen that throughoutthis process as more and more
people come to our doors or arereferred by primary care
(44:36):
providers.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
(45:04):
And you also get betteroutcomes if we can get people in
earlier.
And so that's what we want tobe able to do by finding new
partners and finding additionalcaregivers is to be able to
treat things and nip it in thebud early and let people be able
to go on and lead productivelives and be productive
(45:26):
community citizens.
It's unbelievable to me that Iget to be in this realm every
day because I tell people I'mnot a doctor.
I know how to run a nonprofit.
But as the child of someone whois not well, it makes me
respect this work and thesephysicians, these physicians
(45:46):
assistants even more.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (45:48):
Well, Karen, thank you so very much
for sharing your story.
I feel like I could talk to youfor hours.
We barely touched on the workthat your wonderful programs do.
Again, thank you for being partof this podcast episode.
Could I just ask if peoplelistening want to help, you
know, want to make a donation,want to volunteer in Project
Access, if it's a licensee ofours, what is the best way for
(46:11):
people to get involved?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (46:12):
I would always be honest and say there
are many, many greatorganizations that have been on
the ground here.
We would be especially gratefulfor a donation, and it would go
directly to any of theseprograms that you mentioned you
can designate or we can use itin the area that's most needed.
But if someone is interested,they just go to mymywcms.org.
(46:39):
And they can find the donationbutton.
It's MyWCMS, which of coursestands for Western Carolina
Medical Society, MyWCMS.org.
And you can see online, we area vetted agency.
We really use money well.
And we would be incrediblygrateful because there is so
(47:02):
much left to do on a day in, dayout basis.
There was so much to do beforethe storm.
This ramped it up so manythousand times fold, I can't
even say.
But we are so appreciative forwhat has been done.
But as I said, please rememberus.
And if you would like to give,we would be most grateful.
There's a lot still to do.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (47:23):
Yes.
Well, thank you for that.
We are happy to put thatinformation on our show page so
people could find it.
Did you have anything else thatyou wanted to add before we
close?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (47:32):
I wanted to thank you for this opportunity.
I have been so happy andgrateful to live across the
state of North Carolina.
But, you know, it's strangewhen you grow up an hour inland.
And then live in the triangle.
This is my fourth hurricane.
I've never seen anything likethis in my life, except maybe on
(47:54):
television.
And so we're here.
We are a part of this state.
We are your neighbors.
We are grateful for all thateveryone has done.
And please remember, it's goingto be a long haul, but we're
here and we need yourpartnership.
So thank you.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (48:10):
Well, it's been wonderful to have you.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (48:11):
Thank you so very much.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (48:13):
That brings us to the end of this
episode of Medboard Matters.
If you are interested in morehurricane stories, I hope you'll
join us again later this summerto hear reflections on Helene
from medical professionalsacross Western North Carolina.
If the dedication anddetermination of these
(48:36):
physicians and PAs to care forpatients in the wake of
Hurricane Helene does not makeyou feel good about the medical
profession, I don't know whatwill.
To help listeners face thisyear's hurricane season with as
much confidence as possible, wehave collected some resources on
disaster preparation, which youcan find on our show page at
www.ncmedboard.org.
(48:58):
We've done our best to findinformation that is specific to
medical practices.
So if you are a medicalprofessional or help to run a
practice or healthcare facility,take a look.
There's some good practicaladvice there.
After speaking with KarenWallace-Miggs, when the next
major storm heads towards NorthCarolina, I know I'm going to
(49:20):
gas up my cars, have some cashon hand, and make sure I've got
several days of drinking waterin my pantry.
If Helene taught us nothingelse, it's that disaster can
strike anywhere.
If you have comments,questions, or perhaps a
hurricane story of your own toshare, please send them to
podcast at ncmedboard.org.
Thanks for listening.
(49:41):
I hope you will join me again.
This podcast produced by theNorth Carolina Medical Board.
Amy Williams (49:53):
The North Carolina Medical Board exists for the
benefit and protection of thepeople of North Carolina.
Earlier this year, the National Weather
Service predicted a busyhurricane season for the
Atlantic Basin with as many as19 named storms.
While some of these will remaintropical depressions, up to 10
(00:21):
of 2025's predicted tempests areexpected to be full-blown
hurricanes.
We are already on storm numberthree, Chantel.
That particular storm, whichmade landfall in South Carolina
as a tropical depression, stillmanaged to flood Moore County
into a state of emergency whenit blew through North Carolina.
It's an excellent time to thinkahead and prepare for the worst
(00:43):
if the next storm blows in thedirection of your home, or if
you are a medical professional,your practice.
This is Jean Fisher Brinkley,Communications Director for the
North Carolina Medical Board,and this is MedBoard Matters.
On this episode of the podcast,We are remembering last year's
devastating Hurricane Helene,which hit Western North Carolina
(01:04):
in late September of 2024.
Helene smashed all previousrecords in North Carolina and
currently ranks as the state'sdeadliest and costliest
hurricane of all time.
What made Helene especiallydifficult was where she hit.
Western North Carolina, beingpretty far inland, rarely sees
significant hurricane damage.
(01:25):
But Helene was like nothinganyone had seen before, and
pretty much no one was prepared.
It wasn't something anyonecould have prepared for, says my
guest, Karen Wallace-Meigs.
Karen is executive director ofthe Western Carolina Medical
Society, the professionalmembership group for physicians
and PAs in 16 Western NorthCarolina counties.
(01:47):
The organization has a strongphilanthropic mission, with
service programs that helppatients in need access free
medical and specialty care, aswell as free language
interpretation services.
I spoke with Karen a while agoabout her experiences with the
Western Carolina Medical Societyduring and after Hurricane
Helene.
Please note that ourconversation was recorded in
(02:09):
late May, so some circumstancesmay have changed since we spoke.
I think you'll find the storycompelling and informative just
the same.
Karen, thank you so much forjoining me here today.
I really appreciate your time.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (02:27):
Thank you so much.
I'm glad to be here.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (02:29):
Now, as you know, I've asked you here
today for us to check in allthese months after Hurricane
Helene hit Western NorthCarolina.
But I always like to begin aconversation like this by asking
my guests to just introducethemselves a
Karen Wallace-Meigs (02:43):
Absolutely.
Thank you.
I am Karen Wallace-Meigs, theExecutive Director of Western
Carolina Medical Society.
I started this position in Juneof 2024, so it's been, I'd say,
a little bit of a busy severalmonths here.
I have lived all over the stateof North Carolina, grew up in
(03:03):
southeastern North Carolina,spent many years in the Triangle
area and moved to western NorthCarolina.
almost 22 years ago.
And my background is ineducation, nonprofit management,
and fundraising.
So I've been very fortunate tolive across our beautiful state.
And I think you'll find I havequite a story to tell today.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (03:26):
I am looking forward to it.
First, I understand that theWestern North Carolina Medical
Society is a little bitdifferent than a lot of other
medical societies.
I wondered if you could justsort of describe your model, how
your medical society works.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (03:41):
Absolutely.
We are unlike any other medicalsociety, I think, in the United
States.
So we have 685 members spreadacross 16 westernmost counties
of North Carolina.
And with that, we are trulytheir philanthropic arm.
I don't do a ton of advocacywork, but we are their, as I
(04:03):
said, their philanthropic arm,and that's my favorite part.
It's what attracted me to theposition.
So we have multiple programs.
We do have a health healerprogram so that our members,
physicians and physiciansassistants, can get six brief
therapy or coaching appointmentsper year.
And then reduce therapy afterthat.
That's in response to a veryhigh suicide rate nationwide
(04:25):
among care providers.
We want to take good care ofthose folks.
So we have Healthy Healer.
But our signature program isProject Access.
Project Access serves thoseindividuals who do not qualify
for Medicaid and do nototherwise have insurance.
And we coordinate freespecialty care for them.
(04:46):
That program will be 30 yearsold next year.
It was the first of its kind inthe United States.
It's been replicated.
Yes, we are so proud of that.
Last year, we had 1,480patients.
And again, those are people whoMedicaid expansion didn't touch
them.
We had people before,obviously, who also didn't have
(05:09):
Medicaid.
Medicaid expansion hit awonderful 650,000 people in this
state, but we have folks who donot qualify.
So we coordinated $400,000 infree specialty care.
I cannot say enough about ourmedical partners, hospitals,
medical practices who donatetheir time.
We make sure that those folkscan get to the doctor with
(05:33):
transportation.
We help pay for medications.
So that's Project Access.
I love that program.
It was the main thing growingup in southeastern North
Carolina with a mother who hadcancer.
And we would have to crosscounty lines to get care.
And knowing what that did to myfamily financially, that was
really what drew me to thisposition.
(05:54):
Part of that, and even anextension beyond that, is we run
the largest interpreter networkin western North Carolina.
By that, I can tell you we didalmost 7,000 appointments last
year, 6,700 appointments plus in38 different languages.
(06:16):
So 38 different languages.
We can send our project accesspatients to the doctor and every
project access patient can havea free interpreter so that they
can communicate with theirdoctor in a language they
understand.
It's powerful.
And I have powerful storiesabout that.
(06:36):
I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (06:37):
That could be a whole podcast on its own.
I was just going to ask youwhere you get your interpreters.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (06:42):
Everywhere.
We recruit from schools,community fairs, advertise.
But for example, my Koreaninterpreter, I bring up from
Georgia and I pay the mileage.
They are all contractedemployees with us and community
members.
That program is 20 years oldthis year.
Obviously, they can interpretin other medical practices, not
(07:06):
just for project accesspatients, sometimes for some
other events, such as when wehad the community event, when we
were finally able to gettogether in downtown Asheville
after Hurricane Helene.
But primarily, they do medicalappointments.
So special training, specialcertifications.
And one of the languages isalso American Sign Language for
(07:26):
the deaf.
So we have ASL.
Yeah, that's great.
So Project WIN, which is ourinterpreter program, supports
Project Access and otherprograms.
We do scholarship programs forhigh school seniors who complete
a one-semester internship atMAHEC, which is our local AHEC
in the mountains.
We want to encourage homegrownmedical personnel in various
(07:49):
fields.
So we do small scholarships forhigh school seniors who do
that.
We run a colorectal cancerscreening program, and we are
very proud of that program.
It's one of our newer ones.
It's run by Dr.
Michael Newcomer, and it'sincredible to know how many, it
really, colorectal cancer isbecoming more and more prevalent
(08:11):
among people under age 40.
So last year, we saw 391patients across 13 counties.
We provided 29 freecolonoscopies after doing fit
tests for the other 391.
And those were all our majorprograms, but Hurricane Helene
(08:33):
threw us also into emergencyrelief.
And we had been providingemergency relief for the last
several months to meet socialdeterminants of health.
So that could be anything frompaying your utilities, putting
groceries on the table, topaying rent.
We did all ofthis with a staff of 10. I'm about to add my 11th person, but we've done all of this with a staff of 10 and uh...its pretty much been around the clock, so...
Jean Fisher Brinkley (08:51):
Thank you very much
for that overview. I know we're going to get to talking about this, but that last program you mentioned, the direct assistance program, that actually grew out of Hurricane Helene, correct?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (09:12):
It did.
We had said last fall before ithit, we knew we needed to do
emergency assistance given thepopulation we serve.
But when you have somethinglike that hit, which is a
thousand year storm and soutterly devastating, it became a
necessity, an immediatenecessity, and it will be
(09:33):
something we continue.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (09:36):
So late September, the news is
forecasting this massive,massive storm.
Pretty soon it becomes clearthat it is headed straight for
western North Carolina.
Where were you and what wereyou doing?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (09:48):
It really wasn't clear to all of us.
We knew there was going to berain, but it really wasn't clear
to all of us what was coming.
And we've heard sometimes, whydidn't more people evacuate?
Well, because nothing like thishad ever happened before.
The last three days of themonth, it was pouring, or I
guess the 26th, 27th.
(10:10):
And ironically, this is kind ofa personal note, ironically, I
realized I was having a dentalissue.
And apparently had had anabscess.
So as it poured rain onWednesday night of that week, my
dentist is like, you know, Idon't know if we're going to be
able to get downtown tomorrow.
(10:30):
Let me call in an antibioticfor you.
And my husband drove in thepouring rain and the pharmacy
stayed open late.
And I got an antibiotic.
Well, it's a good thing.
Yes, absolutely.
The next day and nonprofitfolks all over the state will
get this.
The next day I was writing agrant all day long and it was
pouring and I got it turned inlate day.
(10:52):
The next morning I woke up andthe power was out and it had
truly hit overnight.
So our team was thinking we'regoing to need an emergency fund
going forward.
I had been adamant that weneeded to spread out to more
counties, that we needed projectaccess in more counties, more
people needed our help.
We needed to find moreproviders who would help us
(11:16):
across county lines.
It was part of what I waswriting the grant for.
And then it hits.
And I have to tell you, thefirst day or two, I didn't know
how bad it was.
And it was tough.
You could look at thisneighborhood.
My neighborhood, for the mostpart, looked great.
You could look at thisneighborhood.
It looked great.
The next one wasn't.
(11:36):
Phone service was spotty.
I couldn't get my daughters,who were back in the triangle
for school, on the phone.
So internet gone.
Street lights out.
You know, you think, okay,you'll go get some gas.
You had to have cash.
When the grocery store is open,I'll go get food.
To start with, you had to havecash.
ATMs do not work.
(11:57):
in that situation.
So in modern life, with all ofour conveniences and here, let
me get my debit card, peopleweren't prepared.
Jean Fisher Brinkle (12:06):
Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (12:07):
You got to see people, you know, people
would hand each other the cashin their pockets and say, pay it
forward.
And it was pretty amazing.
I mean, that happened to us.
And somebody paid forward to myhusband, wouldn't give the
name.
And then a few days later, myhusband paid forward and the kid
at the next gas pump happenedto have graduated with one of my
daughters.
So that was whatwas pretty immediately.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (12:29):
As you speak, I guess, absolutely.
How would you know, right?
Because power was out.
You didn't have news.
Phones didn't work, right?
Because the satellites weredown.
And yeah, wow.
Okay.
So you mentioned you have astaff of 10.
You were writing a grant thevery next day.
Where was everybody else?
And how quickly did you sort ofspring into action with all of
(12:52):
your service programs?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (12:54):
That part kind of makes me emotional
recalling it.
It took me probably five or sixdays to account for all of my
employees.
One of them had had their homesplit down the middle as they
ran out with their pets.
And the insurance companyrelocated them, and thankfully
they had insurance, butrelocated them to Greenville,
South Carolina, which is an houraway.
(13:15):
It took several days.
And as soon as we knew, thefirst thing I said is we have to
start calling all of thepractices and see what's going
on.
At some point, I was contactedby the North Carolina Medical
Society on behalf of you all,the North Carolina Medical Board
to say
Jean Fisher Brinkley (13:33):
Right.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (13:33):
Any information you can get, please
get to us.
We need to know.
And we started callingpractices.
And for the most part, it wasjust lovely to hear people's
voices.
You know, people were tryingtheir very best trying to get
back on.
Nobody had clean water in manyspaces.
We formed toilet brigades whereyou had to go get water from
wherever you could get it justto flush your toilet.
(13:55):
if you weren't on well water.
So it was a fascinatingexperience, but we started doing
that.
So we started from our homes.
As soon as we could get anyinternet or phone service, we
were calling practices, fillingout forms, reporting that back
to people, giving interviewslike this to various groups, and
(14:17):
simply trying to figure outwhere we needed to be.
And I cannot say enough aboutpeople all over the state and
all over this country who cameto us.
I think people pretty much knowWorld Central Kitchen came into
town.
Many groups came and are stillcoming.
Groups of Amish folks coming tohelp rebuild towns, various
(14:37):
people, but I saw, because I'velived all over this state, it
made me emotional every time.
So many fire rescue police carscoming from all over the state
and Vermont, you know, otherstates.
And you would look and youwould see where they were from.
And they were in there indangerous situations.
(14:59):
But we quickly knew we neededthe emergency fund in place.
Also, we immediately wrote andgot a grant to expand our
Healthy Healer program becausethey were facing just the
hardest road ahead, taking careof people who were absolutely
traumatized while many of themwere traumatized at home in that
(15:22):
work.
Jean Fisher Brinkle (15:23):
Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (15:23):
So people responded beautifully to that.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (15:26):
So, I'm interested in, given what you've
said about how important it wasto have cash, I mean, you could
see for yourself just from yourpersonal experience and from
talking with others, howdifficult it was just to do
basic daily things like puttinggas in the car, getting food,
flushing the toilet, things thatwe take for granted.
And you'd seen how difficultthat was.
So you knew the importance ofhaving assets that you could
(15:48):
trade with so you could get whatyou needed.
Did you provide cash to peopleor how did it work?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (15:54):
Yeah.
We've provided, and I stillhave folks doing that, we have
spent about $40,000 and we hadto come up with the best ways we
could do it.
So you find new partners.
We found a group that was doinga lot of rental assistance.
So they had almost a triagecenter and they brought people
(16:16):
in, did interviews, and wepartnered with them to do rental
support because Asheville,prior to this, was the single
most expensive place in thestate to live.
And so people lost their jobsfor weeks on end.
Some aren't back yet.
And so what we did was we founda partner to do the rental
(16:36):
support.
Then we obviously had funds,the North Carolina Medical
Society Association, which isessentially spouses of people
with the North Carolina MedicalSociety, members of that they
gave us funds and said anybodywho's in a jam help them and
then some people said well onlyfor your project access patients
(16:57):
because they are already sovulnerable so we were running
multiple funds that's quite aaccounting undertaking there but
we were running multiple fundswe started reaching out to
project we had to find part ofour project access patients some
of them had moved some were inshelters you know but people's
housing literally went down whathad been a little creek now
(17:20):
became a raging river.
And so we were having to findpeople.
We figured we give people moneyfor transportation if they need
it to get to the doctor.
We also figured out we could goto our federally qualified
health centers.
And we, I think it was 10,000,I believe in gas cards alone,
that we got to federallyqualified health centers so they
(17:43):
could get people to the doctor,project access patients and
otherwise.
We handed out $500 food cardsto our project access patients.
Again, in so many ways, youdon't have a job, you can't buy
groceries.
What do you do?
How do you choose between yourmedicine, your light bill, if
you've got your lights back onand that?
(18:04):
And I would like to just say atthis juncture now, if you come
visit us and we're a touristarea, we hope you'll come visit.
But what you see in one areamay not reflect what is
otherwise true.
We've got people in fooddeserts and we're more than
seven months out.
And this is in the state ofNorth Carolina.
(18:25):
I think that's important toknow.
But we did a lot withutilities.
We had a pregnant woman with notransportation and her phone
was about to be turned offbecause she couldn't make the
phone bill.
And this is, what, $140 we wereable to pay that because you
clearly can't have a pregnantwoman at home alone without a
phone and no way to getsomewhere.
(18:47):
So there have been a lot ofdifferent ways that we've
supported.
And then we've just found theneed to pay for more and more
medication, too.
So it became a multi-prongedapproach using new community
partners, working even morestrongly with our federally
qualified health centers than weever have before.
(19:07):
Right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (19:38):
realize that this was something that
needed to continue even afterthe hurricane.
Although to hear you talk, it'sclear that there are still
after effects that are affectingmany communities there.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (19:48):
Yes, thank you.
We're still responding to thehurricane.
But as I was saying, we knewthat we had such a vulnerable
population we served to beginwith that we really needed to be
moving in that direction.
We knew that cognitively beforethe storm, but this proved it
to us.
(20:09):
So I don't know that there wasany one moment after the storm,
just as you continue to see theneed.
And working with thispopulation.
So what we're doing now is weare hiring a community health
worker to really address thesocial determinants of health,
to make sure that folks areconnected with other services in
(20:30):
the community, communitypartners, or that, okay, we got
you to the doctor.
You know, we've had whateverspecialty care you need, but do
you have food?
Do you have safe housing?
How can we do that?
So we're excited.
One of the things that wereally born of this, there was a
mobile clinic working with theunhoused population.
(20:52):
And one of my employees, Julie,who is so community oriented,
left her home in West Ashevilleand went to help at this mobile
clinic, kind of a pop up in aparking lot during the storm.
And through thoserelationships, we've decided,
OK, the mobile clinic is goingto keep going.
(21:13):
We needed it anyway.
So we're going to help thempurchase an A1C reading machine.
And then we're going to getbaseline readings for folks who
come into the clinic, connectthem with food boxes, and then
be able to do A1C testing againto see how that goes.
But we're doing more to connectpeople with the healthy food
(21:35):
resources, get it delivered tothem.
Public transportation was anissue to begin with before all
of this.
And by the way, road closuresfor months.
I mean, we had so many roadsdown, people were having to make
handmade signs.
The state didn't even haveenough signs and couldn't get to
us to get them out.
So when you're thinking aboutall the multiple transportation
(21:57):
issues, if I can have someonededicated to, do you have these
other needs met to get youthrough?
As healthy as we possibly can,hopefully optimally healthy, but
as healthy as we possibly can.
Are we meeting that?
Are we connecting you to theservices?
Do you have healthy food thatyou can access?
So if we need to take it toyou.
So that's why we're hiring thatcommunity health worker.
(22:19):
It's also, and I have to saythis, it's made us look at
things differently.
as well as some of ourcommunity partners.
We've signed a three-year MOUwith a wonderful community
agency, All Souls CounselingCenter.
And now all of our ProjectAccess patients for the next
three years can access freetherapy.
(22:42):
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it's great that theagreement is if they feel they
need it, we can refer them toit.
They can make a call and theycan have this free therapy.
And very often after an eventlike this, it's six months, a
year or more later before ithits, because we are working on
adrenaline to begin with.
(23:02):
Everybody, they can access thisfree care.
And I don't even need areferral from a primary care
provider for that.
You need it.
There it is.
Let's get it to you.
So it's been a truly, as Isaid, multi-pronged approach,
but we were feeling it.
I mean, we were feeling theanxiety.
I have always wanted to live bya lake my entire life.
(23:24):
I'm rethinking that after this.
But the thing is, as we'rethinking through all of this,
we're trying to think, whatwould we need?
What does somebody need?
And then we're listening,trying to really listen in our
client's native tongue to seewhat's truly needed.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (23:43):
Wow.
I'm absorbing everything thatyou just said.
For listeners who may not knowthe term social determinants of
health, would you just brieflydefine what it is that you're
talking about and why that fitsin with an organization like
yours?
Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (23:57):
I always think that's an important thing.
So thank you for giving me theopportunity to explain that.
I'll give you an example.
So we recently had a patientwho had breast cancer.
They had no insurance, didn'tqualify for Medicaid.
So we helped them.
We coordinated for them withour providers, free, obviously,
(24:17):
mastectomy, then freereconstructive surgery.
But in talking to this woman,we found out she simply didn't
have enough food at home.
And she was going to have tochoose between food, medication,
rent.
And How is she supposed to getbetter?
And will she ever truly getbetter?
(24:38):
And even if she were to somehowget around then her cancer.
then, you know, is she evergoing to be truly healthy and
trying to figure out.
So we were able to connect herwith those food resources.
That's a social determinant ofhealth, your shelter, your food,
you know, all of those things.
Do you have the things to makeit through life in a healthy
(25:00):
way?
We were able to connect her andI'm so thankful and happy to
say that she is doing well.
She is healthy and her life insome ways has improved beyond
what it was before thatdiagnosis.
And again, we're thecoordinators.
We're kind of conduits here,but we're not the doctors and
(25:21):
the community places providingall of that.
I cannot say enough about theproviders who gave her the care
she needed, and then we wereable to connect her with that
food.
It not only changes her life,When you meet a social
determinant of health like that,it changes the trajectory of a
(25:41):
family.
I mean, if you can't affordfood, what about the kids in the
house?
If you can't afford the rent,then everybody's out.
And when kids are out ofschool, they actually lose
learning.
So it's something that we knewwe were going to need to do.
We just didn't know how fast wewere going to have to put that
together.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (26:00):
Well, thank you for addressing that.
Yeah.
So what were the busiestprograms during the immediate
aftermath of Helene?
You've talked about this newarea, social determinants of
health, talked a little bitabout Project Access, and you
mentioned healthy healers.
I don't imagine there was awhole lot of activity in colon
cancer screening, given the morepressing
Karen Wallace-Meigs (26:19):
needs.
Right.
Slowed a bit there with that.
I think, first of all, you'vegot to find your people, your
clients, your providers.
So we were really busy makingthose phone calls to practices,
seeing what was their situation.
Were they up?
Were they running?
What about their staff?
What about any number ofthings?
Did they have electric?
(26:40):
Did they have clean water?
Getting back to my story aboutmy dentist, for example, my
dentist wound up in anothertown.
So, P.S., I didn't see thedentist for another three
months.
And when I did, I had a raginginfection, which made me
understand that Our clients, allthe better.
(27:01):
We were calling, trying to findout about that.
We were trying to get the moneyraised as quickly as possible.
So my development person wasreally working around the clock,
as was I.
We were trying to get money inthe door and tell the story, as
I am now, so that people wouldrespond so we could get money in
the door to give out.
in a program we had never done.
(27:22):
We had to put parameters aroundthat.
How much per person, perfamily, how are we going to do
this?
What information did we need?
And how are we going to accountfor it to make sure that we
were good stewards?
Those were things that had tohappen and had to happen almost
overnight.
So the first time we went tobuy gas cards, that's not
(27:44):
something we normally do.
And we jammed down the creditcards.
Okay.
wait, let's go the other way,deal with the bank and write
checks.
And now people know what we'redoing and how we're doing it.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (27:58):
Going back to, I'm just curious sort of
what you found when you weredoing that outreach to your
members and reaching out withpractices.
If you had to estimate whatpercentage of people were
affected in some material wayamong your members by the storm?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (28:15):
A percentage would be hard for me
to give you.
I would say many, manypractices were.
A great many practices did nothave water.
They had the same problem Ihad.
They were trying to find theiremployees and they were
frightened.
When they would find theiremployees, in some cases, those
employees were going throughtheir own housing issues,
(28:35):
transportation.
I mean, you know, cars smashedby trees.
And so it was hard.
And, you know, for months,Mayhek had porta-potties out in
the parking lot.
So that went on.
But I was also amazed at theresilience.
And people seemed grateful tohear from us.
(28:57):
And I say that thinking back,one of our federally qualified
health centers, so many of thoseplaces run with emeritus docs.
volunteers.
And one of our FQHCs lost apharmacist who died in the
storm.
That's hard.
It's hard on the remaining,their family and the remaining
(29:20):
staff.
And yet to see people rally, Imean, many, many practices were
back up in some form or anotherpretty quickly.
That does not mean that they donot still need help with
buildings and staffing and wedidn't have enough primary care
providers anyway, especially inrural areas, but people's
(29:43):
resilience.
And I sign almost every emailnow standing together for a
healthier community.
And resilient
Jean Fisher Brinkley (29:56):
Western North Carolina.
That's been impressive.
(30:17):
be able to direct patients tocare.
And we were very happy to help,grateful to have something that
we could do that was tangiblein that way.
But, you know, just in my verysmall role in getting that
directory up and running andwatching the data come in, it
was amazing to read in thecomments the things that people
(30:38):
were saying that they're like,no power, no water.
Yes, we're seeing patients inthe parking lot.
And it was just seeing entryafter entry, not just individual
physicians or individualmedical practices we had.
hospitals, healthcarefacilities, dialysis clinics,
you know, we pretty much anybodywho was open in the realm of
healthcare, we allowed them tobe in the directory.
(30:59):
And it was just amazing to seehow many people had really
experienced some verysignificant interruption to
their normal way of doingbusiness.
And yet they were out theretrying to take care of patients.
So it really was, obviouslydidn't see it with my own eyes,
but that was our little windowinto seeing what was going on in
(31:21):
Western North Carolina.
And it really was inspiring tosee our licensees really doing
everything they could to takecare of their patients.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (31:29):
You know, when you fan your face so you
don't cry, that's what I'm doingwhile you're talking.
Because, I mean, there were Dr.
Bill Hathaway, I would hear heruns Mayhek here, and he would
be on the road going up tofarther out counties.
in Western North Carolina withgroups of people to meet needs.
Yes, there were peoplepracticing in parking lots.
(31:52):
And I know for a fact thatthere were people doing, if they
couldn't do anything else, itwas almost like a first aid
center, like last road betweenNorth Carolina and Tennessee or
North Carolina and Virginia thatwas open.
And they would almost just haveband-aids and supplies and try
to look at people and try to sayif they needed something more.
(32:14):
And sometimes at the same timebe handing out water, food,
clothing, whatever they cantake.
It was amazing seeing howpeople rallied together in so
many different ways.
But the medical community, andI tell my board this and our
membership, I am proud.
awed by what they do for allthe things that you hear about
(32:37):
medical care, sometimes good andbad in the way it works in this
country.
The hearts were amazing.
I mean, the effort people putin, truly.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (32:47):
That makes me think of your Healthy
Healers program.
You increased the availability,you said, of therapy to
providers.
Did they take you up on that?
Did Absolutely.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (33:00):
I'm glad to hear that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Running through that fundinglike crazy.
And let me say that'sconfidential.
I nor none of my staff, the waywe've got it set up, that it's
just the healer, the patient inthis case, and the therapist
know who.
The only single piece that I dohave is the main folks taking
(33:21):
us up on it were our residents,our medical interns.
And that was interestingbecause we would love for them
to stay in Western NorthCarolina.
We want to keep them.
What a trial by fire.
If you're just out of medicalschool and you come, yeah, and
you have that happen.
But we were thrilled.
They have taken us up on it.
It's a program we have had forsome time now.
(33:43):
But yes, it was definitelyused.
That was Western North CarolinaBridge Foundation who really
said, yeah, we're interested ingiving you more money right now
for this, knowing that this is aparticular issue.
And we're just so grateful forthat.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (33:59):
Right.
Well, how great that you werealready there, well-established,
ready to receive that money andimmediately turn around and
make those services available.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (34:06):
The hardest, greatest honor of my
professional life has been thislast seven plus months.
Yeah.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (34:13):
You know, I was going to ask you how going
through all of this changedyour organization.
You've talked about, gave you anew program, you know, fifth
program, the social determinantsof health.
What other changes would yousay?
And feel free, personalchanges, your own feeling about
your work and life, but also theorganization.
How did the society changebecause of this?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (34:35):
Well, you're right.
It's changed so that we'regoing to do more social
determinants of health work, andthat's the right thing to do.
It was going to be the rightthing to do, but it certainly
is.
But I think what it made us allmore aware of is how much we
need our community partners.
to both expand that careprovider base for Project
(34:57):
Access, but also other communitypartners, perhaps food
networks.
As I said, the mental healthcare with All Souls Counseling,
you know, for our patients.
And we wound up really havingto find, okay, who else can help
us be able to clearly andmethodically go through these
requests for help and getsupport, get money, get whatever
(35:21):
is needed to the people whoneed it most.
So I hadn't thought a lot aboutthe police department with our
work, but they called me andthey collected all of this
equipment, durable medicalequipment, which is not cheap
and wasn't easy to get.
because it was hard initiallyfor people to get to us.
They brought it all to us.
(35:42):
And then, as I mentioned, myemployee, Julie, Julie's out
there getting it out there topeople.
It gave us so manyopportunities to find new
partners and partnerships sothat as we go forward, we can
not only respond to emergenciesbetter, we can respond to the
day-in, day-out lives of ourclients better.
(36:04):
And so I can't say enough aboutthose community partners.
The day, I guess the day beforethe storm, I was supposed to go
visit Bounty in Seoul, which isa food program in Black
Mountain, North Carolina.
I haven't got there yet, but,you know, we knew we needed to
do that.
And the reason I haven't gotthere yet is they and we have
been blasted trying to getthrough this.
(36:27):
But it was just so good to beable to reach out and explore
new ways that you can work witha bounty and soul or a man of
food bank, all souls counseling.
Is it a house of faith that weneed to work with?
And so we were able to lookacross so many different sectors
to figure out how can we getthe care we need to the people
(36:49):
we need to get it to.
And in some ways, when yourprograms, you know, we started
as a society for doctors in themountains in 1885.
Project Access, which, as Isaid, has been replicated many
times, but is almost 30 yearsold.
In some ways, in the nonprofitworld, we're not shiny and new,
(37:09):
but it's let us reclaim ourvision, our shared goals.
of equitable access to healthcare for everyone and find new
partners who care about that andwork on it together in a more
holistic way.
So I think that this six, sevenmonths has changed us in many
(37:31):
ways for the better.
And it's given us new ways tothink about our work and what we
need to do.
Yeah.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (37:39):
So you've made more connections.
It sounds like you're strongerthan ever.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (37:42):
In so many ways, I feel like we are.
And that is...
Absolutely.
Let me say we've had somebeautiful leadership here in the
past.
We've just not had a situationlike this that called us to be
better in a way that maybe wehadn't thought about before.
As I said, this has not beeneasy, but I am so grateful to
(38:05):
the folks who work alongside me.
Those other nine people, I'd bein any trench with them.
And And my board for beingvisionary and saying, do what
you need to do, because howgreat is that?
It has given me truly seven ofthe most difficult months of my
(38:25):
professional life, but seven ofthe most rewarding.
And I've had a great career.
So it's been really amazing.
And to see people grow in theirpositions to the folks I work
alongside every day, to see themgrow in their positions and
think, how can we do thisbetter?
How can we make this projectaccess application better and
faster and get to what we needto know?
(38:46):
It used to be you were only inproject access for six months
and you had to renew.
Now you're in it for 12 months.
And we made it streamlined.
How can we make it make moresense?
You know, have it in multiplelanguages, all of that.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (39:01):
And these were things that came out of
seeing the need firsthand?
Yes.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (39:05):
Absolutely.
And moving it, moving itfaster, seeing we need to be
more responsive every day.
And we certainly need to bewhen something like this
happens, because you've got tofind the silver lining.
There are still days and roadwill open up and I'll go down it
for the first time and cry.
And my kids couldn't come homefor months because we didn't
(39:29):
have clean water.
My oldest daughter came backhome.
And we went down a roadtogether for the first time.
And she said, they should havefilmed The Last of Us here.
It looks apocalyptic.
Oh, wow.
This is six and a half monthsafter the storm, when people
have worked their backsides offto get it to look that good and
get the road open.
So it's really been, it changesyou personally, but it also has
(39:54):
given us a chance to change inways that we needed to change
and be more responsive.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (39:59):
So what would you say are the most
pressing areas of continuingneed in Western North Carolina
right now?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (40:06):
Housing was an issue beforehand.
Housing remains one.
I serve on the long-termrecovery group for Buncombe
County.
We were told about a month anda half ago that we still have
1,000 completely destroyed orbasically uninhabitable homes in
my community, small communityof Fairview.
It's 23.
That is a true socialdeterminant of health.
(40:28):
If you do not have a safe placeto be.
It floored me when I washearing people are holding parts
of their homes together withduct tape.
And I heard about an elderlycouple who had to duct tape the
ceiling to keep the elementsfrom falling on them in their
bed at night.
We just went through winter inthe mountains, folks.
That gets cold.
So housing is a huge issue.
(40:50):
We still need tourism dollarsif you want to come into town.
But for some people, it's foodif they're in a food desert.
Certainly a living wage sofolks can meet those social
determinants of health, be ittheir rent, their food, their
transportation.
But medical remains an issue.
As I said, it was.
(41:12):
We had the lowest uninsuredrate in the state.
We need Medicaid expansion tocontinue.
Imagine my program if Medicaidexpansion falters.
I'm going to be swamped, justswamped.
And I need to be able to findmore providers.
So my staff and I are workingtowards that goal, finding more
providers.
(41:32):
But we want to take care of ourfolks.
And we're doing that, all of ustogether, not just Western
Carolina Medical Society, all ofus working together to that in
the very best way we can.
And I'm grateful for everythingeveryone's done for us, but
asking not to forget us.
It's complicated in many placesstill.
(41:53):
We are remote and we've gotroads out.
We still have damaged areas,damaged businesses where people
couldn't go back to work.
So it's not a seven-monthprocess.
This is going to be amulti-year and very expensive
process.
Jean Fisher Brinkle (42:12):
Absolutely.
I was just going to say, whatis next, do you think, for your
organization?
Are you going to continue togrow?
You're going to write moregrants, find more partners.
What do you see on the horizon?
All of the above.
We are
Karen Wallace-Meigs (42:26):
writing grants.
We are trying, you know, I'mkind of in a position of, do I
try to cross more county lines,which was my goal?
Do I wait and see what's goingto happen with Medicaid
expansion?
And will I be swamped in whereI already am?
So we will write more grants.
We are hiring this communityhealth worker.
We are really advertising andpushing for more interpreters.
(42:50):
We're looking at all of this inany number of myriad ways that
any nonprofit would look at whatthey're doing.
How can we find more, not onlyhealthcare providers, but
community partners to which wecan make referrals?
So we're looking at all ofthat.
I have to tell you pre-stormthat When somebody says, well,
(43:11):
you know, what about thisinterpreting and medical and how
necessary is it?
We got an emergency call from ahospital saying there's a woman
here.
She's very, very upset.
She needs to make finaldecisions for her husband.
This is irreversible.
He's not going to come around.
She can't understand a wordwe're saying, and we don't know
(43:33):
what to say, and she'shysterical.
Well, given, that was fair.
We managed to figure out whatlanguage and get an interpreter
there.
And in the worst moment of herlife, we had someone there in
her native tongue.
It did not change the outcomeat all, but she was able to feel
like someone was there for her.
(43:55):
make decisions she had to make,understand what was being said
to her.
And what struck me so deeply atthe end of that day, I had some
really sad staff.
As you can understand, it wasdifficult.
And what I said to her is whatI just said to you.
We were there for her at theworst moment of her life.
(44:16):
We couldn't change anything.
Maybe that made it a little bitbetter, but at least she had
that dignity of hearing somebodyin her native tongue.
That was important.
And we've seen that throughoutthis process as more and more
people come to our doors or arereferred by primary care
(44:36):
providers.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
(45:04):
And you also get betteroutcomes if we can get people in
earlier.
And so that's what we want tobe able to do by finding new
partners and finding additionalcaregivers is to be able to
treat things and nip it in thebud early and let people be able
to go on and lead productivelives and be productive
(45:26):
community citizens.
It's unbelievable to me that Iget to be in this realm every
day because I tell people I'mnot a doctor.
I know how to run a nonprofit.
But as the child of someone whois not well, it makes me
respect this work and thesephysicians, these physicians
(45:46):
assistants even more.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (45:48):
Well, Karen, thank you so very much
for sharing your story.
I feel like I could talk to youfor hours.
We barely touched on the workthat your wonderful programs do.
Again, thank you for being partof this podcast episode.
Could I just ask if peoplelistening want to help, you
know, want to make a donation,want to volunteer in Project
Access, if it's a licensee ofours, what is the best way for
(46:11):
people to get involved?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (46:12):
I would always be honest and say there
are many, many greatorganizations that have been on
the ground here.
We would be especially gratefulfor a donation, and it would go
directly to any of theseprograms that you mentioned you
can designate or we can use itin the area that's most needed.
But if someone is interested,they just go to mymywcms.org.
(46:39):
And they can find the donationbutton.
It's MyWCMS, which of coursestands for Western Carolina
Medical Society, MyWCMS.org.
And you can see online, we area vetted agency.
We really use money well.
And we would be incrediblygrateful because there is so
(47:02):
much left to do on a day in, dayout basis.
There was so much to do beforethe storm.
This ramped it up so manythousand times fold, I can't
even say.
But we are so appreciative forwhat has been done.
But as I said, please rememberus.
And if you would like to give,we would be most grateful.
There's a lot still to do.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (47:23):
Yes.
Well, thank you for that.
We are happy to put thatinformation on our show page so
people could find it.
Did you have anything else thatyou wanted to add before we
close?
Karen Wallace-Meigs (47:32):
I wanted to thank you for this opportunity.
I have been so happy andgrateful to live across the
state of North Carolina.
But, you know, it's strangewhen you grow up an hour inland.
And then live in the triangle.
This is my fourth hurricane.
I've never seen anything likethis in my life, except maybe on
(47:54):
television.
And so we're here.
We are a part of this state.
We are your neighbors.
We are grateful for all thateveryone has done.
And please remember, it's goingto be a long haul, but we're
here and we need yourpartnership.
So thank you.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (48:10):
Well, it's been wonderful to have you.
Karen Wallace-Meigs (48:11):
Thank you so very much.
Jean Fisher Brinkley (48:13):
That brings us to the end of this
episode of Medboard Matters.
If you are interested in morehurricane stories, I hope you'll
join us again later this summerto hear reflections on Helene
from medical professionalsacross Western North Carolina.
If the dedication anddetermination of these
(48:36):
physicians and PAs to care forpatients in the wake of
Hurricane Helene does not makeyou feel good about the medical
profession, I don't know whatwill.
To help listeners face thisyear's hurricane season with as
much confidence as possible, wehave collected some resources on
disaster preparation, which youcan find on our show page at
www.ncmedboard.org.
(48:58):
We've done our best to findinformation that is specific to
medical practices.
So if you are a medicalprofessional or help to run a
practice or healthcare facility,take a look.
There's some good practicaladvice there.
After speaking with KarenWallace-Miggs, when the next
major storm heads towards NorthCarolina, I know I'm going to
(49:20):
gas up my cars, have some cashon hand, and make sure I've got
several days of drinking waterin my pantry.
If Helene taught us nothingelse, it's that disaster can
strike anywhere.
If you have comments,questions, or perhaps a
hurricane story of your own toshare, please send them to
podcast at ncmedboard.org.
Thanks for listening.
(49:41):
I hope you will join me again.
This podcast produced by theNorth Carolina Medical Board.
Amy Williams (49:53):
The North Carolina Medical Board exists for the
benefit and protection of thepeople of North Carolina.
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