Voted a "top doctor" in Seattle, Dr. Ben Danielson, "Dr. Ben," is a respected leader and advocate in the world of pediatric medicine. He is also the product of a life that pulled him from the foster care system and into education.
Personal experience guides his work every day. He brings both a deep understanding and great hope to his patients, himself having had a childhood that took him from foster care to Harvard.
At Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, he has passion for his work, and compassion for the kids.
Jean Enersen sat down with Dr. Ben to talk about the idea of “growing wellness” at OBCC.
DR. BEN:
It's an incredible honor to have the slightest bit of shared experience, commonality with the families you get to serve and sort of say "I believe in you. I really have faith in you."
JEAN:
Tell me about the things that really set Odessa Brown apart. The key features of Odessa Brown that you think people don't really know fully.
DR. BEN:
Being part of Seattle Children's hospital has allowed our clinic to think a little more, to dream a little more, to imagine doing something better to be kind of Odessa Brown and to say the status quo for health care is not satisfactory.
JEAN:
Talk about the population that you serve.
DR. BEN:
If you spend any time in the waiting room you feel like you are in the lobby of the United Nations you just see clothing and family structures skin colors and languages and just different ways of celebrating that just feel kind of inspiring.
JEAN:
My sense of Odessa Brown is it's not just a medical clinic. It doesn't just serve children but their families the whole community, could you talk about that idea?
DR. BEN:
Somebody once told me this adage that sounds corny but is actually really real to me that you can't educate an unhealthy child and you can't keep an uneducated child healthy. And that means that education and health, education and healthcare practices those are interlinked those are intertwined there's a single garment there.
JEAN:
How would you describe the clinic in a nutshell? If you were going to make the most compact statement, what would you say?
DR. BEN:
A few of my colleagues and I kind of sat down at a couple years ago now and so talked about that what is it what is it that we are about if we had a really boil it down into a phrase and I we came up with this phrase re-grow wellness, we grow wellness.
JEAN:
Why invest in this particular community?
DR. BEN:
I think if you look at this community and the children who live in it the things that you do to support their futures are the kinds of things that are going to pay back the whole community
A healthier whole community is healthier for everybody throughout the wide expanse of that community. That's actually proven in research and literature and you wouldn't even need that proof if you walk through the door and you saw the potential that you were investing in here in this in this neighborhood today.
To donate visit: https://giveto.seattlechildrens.org/OBCCspecial
