It's Your Body

[Music] thank you hey jazzbo we're doing it yeah really man we're on our own and we got a place to stay when we get up there with Tony and with the with the Moose Ryan we'll be working at a regular job yeah yeah really man with lots of side benefits side benefits Oh you mean fringe benefits Hey listen Jazz I'm not ready to retire yet well yeah man I mean you can get sick you could have an accident or something you know sure a positive thinker are you a Virgo really man side benefits are a good thing to have if you're in a strange place look I never get sick yeah oh come on I really man lots of people get homesick I've been homesick man you get weird symptoms you get uh headaches you get nervous stomach man weird symptoms hey look at me I'm a healthy male specimen yeah yeah listen man all I'm saying to you is that if you're going to be on your own you got to cover yourself you know you got to think about it that's all all right now what happens if you do get sick or you have an accident I bet you never thought about it huh I mean uh doctors man hospitals that adds up to a lot of money you know my family has a hospital insurance plan yeah well are you covered by it like I guess you better check with your old man my mother handles all that stuff yeah Hey listen man you're sweating and you're coughing and everything will you take my muffler no I don't need it come on man I'll get it just keep going are you sure you're not a Virgo foreign [Applause] hey moose don't monopolize them come on yeah almost always has to take the party we're here okay yeah we shouldn't have to get up in the morning I have an exam well don't worry about this is a party now hey man you don't look so good yeah you do look awful pale look at his eyes it could be serious hey have a drink I don't fix everything really no really listen you better like hey man you'd better lie down you're looking worse by the minute hot in here my head feels awful hot Gail can you call a doctor it's Saturday what about the emergency hospital hey wait a minute I know fire police State Police doctor emergency hospital this is an emergency I'm not dying hey man you can't walk around now you're sick will you take it easy come on come on get on the couch hey Tony Tony have you got a thermometer I'll get it it'll be okay I can get him into student health tomorrow but he's not registered I go to my own doctor if I were you I don't have a doctor and I don't have any money that's okay you're covered on your new job yeah but he's not covered until he starts work what are you supposed to do huh I mean if you're not working and you're not a student you don't have any money what do you do just lie down and die [Music] well when Steve gets here he'll know something I mean after all he is in med school but in the meantime there's got to be some way there's the free clinic yeah but is it really free oh sure they'll take you whether you have money or not only thing is that the lines are kind of long but then if it's an emergency they will take you to the front [Music] many people ask us are free clinics really free the Los Angeles free clinic which helped to Pioneer the free clinic movement always has been and still is today a free clinic there are no charges some people find it hard to believe that we can operate without a fee but although we ask donations get many of them we don't actually charge a fee some of the free clinics and there are free clinics all over the country nowadays have found it necessary to charge a small fee usually on a sliding scale but I think it's safe to say that in no free clinic would a person be turned away simply because that person didn't have the ability to pay thank you free clinics are located all over the United States they're usually found in the larger cities and usually you'll find them also in smaller towns where there are colleges and universities to find a free clinic your best bet is probably to go into the phone book look under free clinics and Yellow Pages you may not find it there your safest bet after that is to get in touch with the local Health authorities the county or the city public health department and they most likely will be able to lead you to a free clinic if it exists in that community first of all young people oftentimes tend to abuse themselves because they're enjoying the freedom of getting away from parents and quite often they don't eat properly they don't sleep properly they don't get into proper exercise and they're gonna feel this eventually they're going to feel it in terms of muscular problems anemia fainting the the body is in a sense a machine and it was constructed so as to let us know when something's wrong many people particularly young people feel they can ignore warning signs and you can it'll catch up to you people in trouble Under Pressure uh feeling insecure not having certain needs met in their life then they go to abusing themselves by abusing a particular substance be it alcohol or drugs characteristically we think of young people as involved with drugs but we're finding that more and more young people are becoming alcoholics at younger ages and that's an alarming problem young people who are away and on their own for the first time in their lives face a variety of problems they have to face for the first time a whole range of decisions and quite often this leads to problems that they didn't expect or they're not prepared to handle and these pressures often become emotional and mental and at some point the pressure is going to build up and there's going to be some kind of a break the important thing is to realize that there's a problem before that pressure point and to seek help because help is available the most important thing for a young person on his own is to realize that only he or she is going to take care of himself no one else is going to come along and do it you have to take responsibility for your own life help is available sometimes it's not as easy to find it varies from location to location but it is available if you seek it out now in specific terms if you can't afford private medical care most cities have public health departments most cities have County General hospitals or general hospitals go there and virtually in every city United States you can get care if you're persistent enough services at the free clinic are especially unique for several reasons first of all we take a totally non-judgmental approach to the patient uh the atmosphere is informal and a person comes here knowing that they're not going to be lectured to and they're going to be treated not as if there's a mysterious health problem but as if there's a problem that they themselves are involved in we give them complete information about what is going on with their own body also we take what we consider to be a unique and valuable approach to the practicing of Health we Define health very broadly we feel that health is not simply physical health or even mental health but it has to do with the entire person's life and lifestyle therefore we provide services not only to heal the body to help with the mind but most free clinics provide a variety of services such as legal aid to help with legal problems we have job finding services to help people find jobs in the words we find when people are in trouble it's not just one aspect of their life that's out of whack usually there are more than one and just putting one back in whack doesn't necessarily solve the problems and make the person whole again try to treat the whole person try to get the person involved in his life and in his own his or her own treatment thank you how you doing okay I guess I still think a drink would cure him you know what most you could become an alcoholic what do you mean you drink a lot oh me an alcoholic I don't even want this drink exactly when you drink whether you want to or not you've got a problem Alcoholics Anonymous has a whole special setup for young people you should get that information now and what about me I mean what if there's no free clinic open well if it is a real emergency there's always a county hospital or if you walk in or just want telephone information you can call the health department a lot of them have special Youth Clinics doctor I well I've just been feeling kind of tired and I don't know just kind of not myself I've just been feeling bad my glands have been hurting and are you running a temperature well I don't own a thermometer so I don't I I can't I get kind of hot and cold I mean I don't really know you know you know are you working and going to school I I just moved into town and I don't have a job I I can that's why I came here because uh some friends of mine told me about this place where I might be able to get a job are you getting a proper rest uh with these friends we've been having awful lot of good times at night and running around and partying and everything and so I guess I haven't really been getting too much rest how about eating are you eating probably that's been kind of difficult too I don't have much money and I've just been picking up a hamburger and you know French fries and things like that whatever I can I know a lot of kids that come in here have the same problems and the same complaints and I think it's kind of important that you take care of your body and that means eating properly and you really ought to get some some food from every basic group from the milk group and some from their meat group and hamburgers shouldn't be your only source of protein from the vegetable and fruit group and even if you can't cook real well you can eat them all Raw and from the Breads and cereals okay because even though your problems might be due to a bug or something that hits your your body still needs Basic Foods and good rest in order to function properly and even though you might have had somebody at home taking care of this for you before you left you got to take care of yourself now I guess you're right no get undressed now and we'll take a look at it okay now remember Rick this is a walk-in facility and it's great for acute problems but most health departments have ongoing medical clinics that you use as an ongoing basis and that's where I want you to come back for the results of your blood test and your throat culture and we'll see what medication you might need and if I were you while I was living in this community use this facility as your doctor I don't want to come in here with every little complaint you know well I appreciate that and uh I don't think I would neglect any rash that's been going on for a long time and getting worse or any fever that's gone on for several days and not getting better those things you ought to you know come in here this place is open to you and for that kind of problem what about headaches an occasional headache everyone gets you get upset or uptight or you have a cold or sinus but you know anything like that that persists for any length of time you should have it looked into don't diagnose your own problems anything lasts more than a day or two well two to three you can go that far but so many times we have kids coming in here when they are really in trouble and often even have to wind up in the hospital we want to get you early we want to be able to help you we have lots of facilities here in this place for various kinds of problems and all you have to do is give us a call come on in and we'll let you know whether it's serious or not I might go to another city if I can find a job you know Rick one of the problems with young people is that they do a lot of listening to each other and sometimes they get some misinformation so if you have any difficulties any problems don't hesitate to get professional advice there are facilities like this no matter what city you go to and it's free so you'll feel a lot better about it you'll you'll have a little bit of more control over your own body if you look for the help that's available to you okay well let me hear the worst go on break it to him gently no he's gonna live uh you just got a mild case of the flu what can I take for it that is nothing really nothing no I just uh just stay in bed and drink plenty of liquids and uh and take the aspirin until the fever goes down okay Hey Ron it's your mother oh man I forgot to call her to tell her I got here I didn't call because I got sick no Mom not coming home listen I'll be okay I'm on my own now a big boy I gotta learn to take care of myself and I'm learning listen everything's gonna be okay yeah [Music]