By Maryal Concepcion, MD, FAAFP, Founder & Owner, Big Trees MD DPC
2024 photo here, or use one from Comms if you have a newer one.
Living and practicing in Calaveras County has shown me how fragile rural healthcare really is and how powerful a community can become when we choose to act together. Over the next year, our rural clinic is working to build something our county has never formally had: a coordinated Community Action Committee that links public health, local nonprofits, colleges, schools, churches, and small businesses in a shared mission to identify and support residents who are falling through the cracks.
This isn’t polished. It isn’t perfect. But it is necessary.
Our goal is to create a simple, universal entry point, a QR code, a form, a phone number, so anyone in the community can flag a neighbor who needs help with food access, vaccines, transportation, chronic disease follow-up, or referrals. We intend to work alongside the county’s mobile health services, student groups from Sac State and Columbia College, and local civic organizations to make health fairs and screening events routine rather than rare.
We hope to bring blood pressure checks, audiology and vision screenings, fluoride varnish, fall-risk assessments, and low-cost labs directly to neighborhoods where reliable care has always felt out of reach. And while not all of this exists today, we are laying the foundation now.
What Can Your Clinic Do?
Any clinic, large or small, rural or not, can make a difference to the community. Choose one local partner - maybe your county public health department, a community college, a church, or a food pantry - and initiate a conversation about shared outreach. Ask: “If we built a community referral pathway together, what would it need to include?”
Movements begin with questions, not perfection.
Helpful resources:
• National Rural Health Resource Center
• California For All Public Health resources
• National Rural Health Association
• Rural Health Information Hub, especially Developing a Rural Community Health Program
Maryal Concepcion is a rural Family doc in Arnold, CA, a town of about 4000 people. She is the AAFP National Chair for the Direct Primary Care Member Interest Group (MIG), Founder and Owner of Big Trees MD, a DPC she runs with her husband, fellow family physician Dr. Jeremiah Fillo, and she hosts the weekly podcast, My DPC Story, a podcast all about the physicians choosing to do DPC. Connect with Dr. Concepcion at her podcast at https://mydpcstory.com
