Daughters of Charity Services of San Antonio

Since 1958, Daughters of Charity Services has been dedicated to its mission of establishing and maintaining neighborhood based programs to increase accessibility to primary health care and human services on the part of the poor. These programs have a strong holistic orientation and consider participation and empowerment as an integral dimension of the delivery of service. While services are rendered with preferential option for the poor, it is not to the exclusion of others. We operate five health and social service centers: DePaul Family Center, De Paul Children’s Center, DePaul-Wesley Children’s Center, La Misión Family Health Care, and El Carmen Wellness Center. We offer primary medical care, dental care, social services, health education, preventive services, counseling, child development, after-school programs, home visitation, and other outreach services to over 12,000 struggling families annually in south Bexar County. We follow objectives that are embedded in Ascension Health strategic direction that promotes the provision of Services That Work, Services That Are Safe, and Services That Leave No One Behind (reach the vulnerable by serving our clients in the communities in which they live and through outreach efforts). DCSSA provides a large amount of charity care; 85 percent of our clients qualify for our maximum charity care benefit. La Misión Family Health Care, our primary medical/dental clinic, is the only health care facility of any kind, public or private, within an eight-mile radius inhabited by 30,000 residents in far south San Antonio and south Bexar County. The individuals and families who use La Misión Family Health Care for their primary health needs generally cannot access care anywhere else due to lack of resources, lack of transportation, low literacy levels, limited English speaking abilities, and/or poverty. Our target population is comprised of largely Hispanic, uninsured, underinsured, elderly and impoverished residents of San Antonio. Hispanics represent 85 percent of those served, 11 percent are Anglo and four percent other. Eighty-five percent of the clients we serve fall at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level. Seventy-five percent of the residents in our service area have no health insurance.