New Outer Cape Health CEO hopes to add 'visibility' for LGBTQIA community. Here's how.

Outer Cape Health Services recently announced Dr. Damian K. L. Archer is the community health center’s new chief executive officer, starting Dec. 1.

Archer is currently serving as chief health equity officer for the agency. He will assume the new position from retiring CEO Patricia A. Nadle whose service will overlap with Archer for three months.

Originally from the Bahamas, Archer has worked in community health for 12 years. He has been coming to Cape Cod as a summer tourist for over a decade and has been a part-time resident since October 2021. Since April, he has been a full-time Cape Codder, joining Outer Cape Health Services at that time.

“Provincetown is the center for a lot of the LGBTQIA community, it’s where we feel very safe and like we belong,” said Archer in a phone interview. He identifies as a Black gay man. “That was my entry point into the beauty of Cape Cod.”

A resident of Provincetown, Archer is a board-certified family medicine physician. Previously he served as the chief clinical (medical) officer at North Shore Community Health in Salem.

Outer Cape Health Services, a nonprofit, serves more than 20,000 patients annually in the 10 outermost towns of the peninsula. It was founded in 1987 with the merger of Health Associates of Provincetown and the AIM Medical Center in Wellfleet.

Filling in gaps in health care on Cape Cod

During his time at Outer Cape as the chief health equity officer, Archer has worked closely to collect data to find gaps in health care, find the people who are being left behind, potentially because of social determinants of health issues or because people who would be considered marginalized.

According to Archer, marginalized people need extra attention and care so that they can receive the same care as everyone else.

“I’m going to continue with the motto Outer Cape has for achieving health care equality,” said Archer. “I want to help the organization to continue its mission of providing high quality, comprehensive primary care services and the delivery of social services which are extremely crucial in order to make sure that people are achieving their maximum health."

Archer currently serves on the Committee on Diversity at the Massachusetts Medical Society and is also an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Tufts School of Medicine.

According to Archer, the Cape's changing demographics are evident in its growing numbers of aging individuals and immigrant families.

“The way to help address this change both in health care and otherwise is to apply equity, and to figure out how we can care for everybody in the best way possible that's most suitable to them,” he said.

As a health care center, "we have to make sure that we're maximizing the potential for us to do the best we can with all the challenges that come with the changing demographic," Archer said. Also, the health care center needs to make sure, especially for the LGBTQIA community, "that we are adding to the visibility of the people who are always here and making them feel welcomed as if they belong, because they do,” he said.

Rasheek Tabassum Mujib writes about health care and education. Reach her at rmujib@capecodonline.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Dr. Damian Archer is new Outer Cape Health Services CEO