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Elizabeth “Bicky” Trager Patient Education Fund
People’s Community Clinic’s mission is to improve the health of medically underserved and uninsured Central Texans by providing high quality, affordable health care. Doing this takes more than access to a physician. Empowering patients and their families to increase their understanding of primary health issues and options is essential.
The Bicky Trager Education Fund (BTEF) was created in 2003 to honor family planning advocate Elizabeth (Bicky) Freiberg Trager and support patient education at PCC. It was one of the first, restricted-purpose funds to be established at PCC. Start-up funds were provided by Bicky’s daughter, Nancy Trager Neavel and her late husband, Richard C. Neavel. Many family members made generous donations and hoped that others would be inspired to contribute.
Bicky spent her final years in Austin, but lived most of her life in Cincinnati, Ohio. A graduate of Wellesley College, she spent many years donating time and energy to helping young women and children; she volunteered at Planned Parenthood in the early 1930s and for several decades. Bicky taught classes on family planning and birth control and visited new mothers in their hospital rooms to offer family planning information.
The BTEF supports a variety of patient education efforts at PCC, primarily the work of health educators. They assist at the Center for Adolescent Health and the Department of Women’s Health and Adult Medicine. Educators’ responsibilities include providing patients information on many topics including family planning, pregnancy determination, prenatal care, diabetes and other chronic diseases and health wellness. Health educator relationships with patients provide a more informal place for patients to ask personal questions.
A contribution to the BTEF will help make it possible for more PCC clients to learn about and maintain healthy lifestyles.
