Local residents turned out at the Templeton Hills Seventh-Day Adventist Church for a free community wellness clinic over the weekend. Adventist Health, the SLO Food Bank, Transitions Mental Health, and Tolosa Children’s Dental Center partnered to provide a wide range of services, including dental care, vision exams, mental health resources, food distribution, and haircuts.
Organizers say the goal was to make healthcare more accessible for everyone, especially for uninsured or underinsured individuals in the community.
Nicholas Lozito, the director of mission and spiritual care for Adventist Health, explained what kinds of services were offered during the event. “We've had about 15 dentists show up and oral surgeon here giving people root canals to fillings, to extractions. Ophthalmologists are giving people glasses. Mental health practitioners are here helping people understand what's going on. And it's a little bit everybody is here kind of helping people be able to have services that they might need," said Lozito.
According to Lozito, the Adventist Health Wellness Clinic helped 134 patients with vision services, 105 patients with dental services, and handed out around 55,600 lbs of food. The total value of the services provided over the weekend was $272,480.
