Inova Pride Clinic Dedicated To LGBTQ Community Opens In Falls Church

FALLS CHURCH, VA — Inova Health System held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday morning for its new Inova Pride Clinic in Falls Church, which will provide both primary care and specialized services to the LGBTQ community in Northern Virginia.

Clinicians at the Inova Pride Clinic will be skilled in primary care and health prevention and will be experts in addressing the health needs of the LGBTQ community such as gender-affirming care, HIV prevention, adolescent health, sexually transmitting disease treatment and prevention, and mental health, Inova said.

The new clinic will help to fill a void created when the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia in Arlington closed its doors in 2009. Whitman-Walker, which still has locations in the District of Columbia, specialized in HIV/AIDS healthcare and LGBTQ healthcare.

“Although I’m a big believer, huge believer in standardizing everything possible,” Dr. J. Stephen Jones, president and CEO of Inova, said at Wednesday’s ceremony, “our values drive us to meet the unique needs of each individual within those parameters.”

Inova’s mission is to serve each community and each person in Northern Virginia “with respect, with equity and with inclusivity,” Jones said.

The new Inova Pride Clinic will serve as a dedicated medical home for LGBGTQ patients ranging from adolescents to adults who need to receive comprehensive primary care and health prevention. The clinic also will address the unique needs of the LGBTQ community, Jones emphasized.

According to Inova, the Falls Church clinic will be Northern Virginia's first dedicated, comprehensive primary care home for the region's LGBTQ community. LGBTQ community members “are more likely to delay care and less likely to have access to a culturally competent healthcare provider,” Inova said.

The new clinic, at 500 North Washington Street, Suite 200 in Falls Church, will be open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Top political leaders from Falls Church, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, Prince William County, Arlington County and the City of Alexandria joined Jones and other Inova officials at the ribbon-cutting event.

Jeffrey McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, attended the event to show that Fairfax County supports Inova setting up a clinic geared to the LGBTQ community.

"We pride ourselves in Fairfax County of being a welcoming, open community for all people to thrive in, and that includes our LGBTQ community," McKay told Patch. "I want to make it clear that that community is welcome and fully embraced and fully supported in Fairfax County. Inova is a strong partner with us in the county, so I'm just delighted to see this happen today."

Karen Berube, vice president of community and population health for Inova, said that opening a clinic for the LGBTQ community in Northern Virginia had been a dream of hers for over 20 years.

"I am so proud of Inova and our health system for taking action to meet a real community need, truly investing in our community and its people," Berube told the people gathered at the ceremony. "I am hopeful that with this clinic, there will never be another adolescent who feels scared, afraid, or alone, or who feels they need to take their lives because they can't get the care they need because of their identity."