News

Sep 16, 2022

Lawyers Give Back: Church Health is Making a Difference in Memphis

By Anthony Legal,

The city of Memphis is in this firm’s DNA. Whether it’s the prominently displayed Velvet Elvis painting, the University of Memphis banner (and diploma, of course), or David’s constant reference to the “grit and grind” that he learned growing up in Memphis, there’s no denying that there’s a lot of Memphis pride in this Nashville law firm.

It was with great sadness, then, that we watched the recent national news from Memphis. In the face of such heartbreaking and random violence, it’s easy to feel hopeless, as if there’s no way to fix and prevent these types of problems in future.

“This is a poverty issue,” Scott Morris told the Daily Memphian. “This is what happens when huge portions of our population live in desperation, not feeling like there is hope in their life.”

Morris is the founder of Church Health, a non-profit that has provided quality, low-cost essential health-care services to the working uninsured in Memphis for over 35 years. Church Health has a staff of physicians, dentists, optometrists, counselors, and health coaches, as well as hundreds of volunteer medical professionals, all designed to bridge the huge gap between the community’s needs and their ability to obtain basic care.

It’s incomprehensible that a fully employed citizen in the State of Tennessee would lack access to affordable, basic health-care, but it’s the world we live in. (Well, at the very least, it’s the state we life in.) Church Health sees the impact that the lack of basic health-care has on the entire family unit, both in the present and in the future, and seeks to meet that need.

Most of us take for granted something as simple as a trip to the dentist when your tooth hurts, or a trip to the doctor when you’re sick, but some in our community simply don’t get that. Think of the message that sends. That you don’t matter. That the world doesn’t care. That you aren’t a meaningful part of our community.

Church Health’s goal is to care for the physical ailments and, by doing so, to care for the soul. We can’t solve crime over-night, but we can care for our disadvantaged neighbors and make their lives easier when they are sick. Church Health shows them that they matter, that somebody cares, and that they are part of our community.

That’s why we support them with this month’s hour.

To learn more about Church Health and how you can help, visit: https://churchhealth.org/