From Its Counterculture Roots, Haight Ashbury Free Clinic Morphs Into Health Care Conglomerate (californiahealthline.org)

Since it opened 50 years ago, the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic has been a refuge for everyone from flower children to famous rock stars to Vietnam War veterans returning home addicted to heroin.

Strolling through the clinic, one of the first of its kind in the nation, founder Dr. David Smith points to a large collage that decorates a wall of an exam room affectionately referred to as the Psychedelic Wall of Fame. 

Fundamentally, Smith and others say, the organization has remained true to its counterculture roots, still offering free care in a deliberately nonjudgmental atmosphere.

But it is also drastically different: It is now the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics — plural — and part of a multi-million dollar conglomerate with a decidedly un-hippie name: HealthRIGHT360.

All told, HealthRIGHT360 serves approximately 40,000 patients each year in a wide range of programs, including “reentry” services to formerly incarcerated adults and teens, residential and outpatient drug treatment, mental health care and medical and dental care.

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