A recent grant from Inland Empire Community Foundation through the FitzDell Gifting Fund will directly impact DAP Health’s Partners For Life (PFL)/Impact and greatly support DAP Health’s gender and sexuality-affirming care.
“We have chosen three unique sites of our 25 locations to ensure that we provide equitable access in our service area to DAP Health’s transgender and gender diverse patients,” said CEO David Brinkman of how the grant will be distributed.
Those three sites include Stonewall Medical Center in Cathedral City, Centro Medico Escondido, and DAP Health on Sunrise Way in Palm Springs.
DAP Health has long garnered positive attention for its efforts to empower its patients and address the health and wellness needs of transgender, intersex, and gender-diverse communities, in fact. And PFL has been vital and impactful for more than three decades, mainly because its members have further secured DAP Health’s ongoing goal to fund and ensure “equitable, patient-centered health care” to so many thousands of patients annually.
There are several tiers within PFL—from Bronze, Silver, and Gold to Platinum and Sterling—all of which allow for comprehensive services, such as behavioral health, addiction services, housing, dentistry, career counseling, and more.
Brinkman said it all ties into creating a positive impact on the holistic well-being of the community.
“I love our community,” he added. “I love being of service to this wonderful valley that we live in and the outlying communities that we serve. I love our volunteers and our patients, and I love our staff’s commitment to the mission of our organization.”
“It’s unparalleled—the people who are attracted to be a part of DAP Health and the impact that they make,” he added.
DAP Health was founded 40 years ago at the beginning of the AIDS crisis by volunteers who lived in the Coachella Valley.
“Specifically, a CPA, an RN, a psychologist, and their friends,” Brinkman said. “And it was founded to ensure that there was equitable access to health care to our initial patient population, which was primarily gay men who were living with and trying to survive a terrible disease, HIV. We were founded 10 years before there were any effective HIV medications and those first 10 years taught us that there are other modalities to impact the immune system positively in addition to pharmaceuticals.”
Through creativity and hard work, the organization discovered that housing, nutrition, mental health, and unique programs became vital to driving great health outcomes. But also to advancing the human rights of people who are marginalized in our communities.
“Today we pay forward those hard lessons learned by caring for all people,” Brinkman said. “In our last year we cared for 84,000 patients at our 25 sites—using this holistic model that partners primary care with behavior health with housing and dentistry and nutrition to provide a true comprehensive wraparound service to increase the health and the human rights of Coachella Valley residents who are living on the margins today. “
There’s no shortage of support in the organization, in fact. A quick glance at several of its programs, especially in its main Sunrise location, and one can find everything from a book club and stress management care to recovery meetings, art classes, and yoga.
There’s so much more, of course, including one of the most renowned healthcare facilities in the country.
In the meantime, DAP Health always opens its arms to volunteers. Considered the “lifeblood” of its many programs, services, events, and noticeably, its Revivals Stores, interested parties are welcome to visit the website for details.
Learn more about DAP Health at daphealth.org.
This article originally appeared in the Desert Sun, December 2024.
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