By DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
HERALD NEWS

PATERSON -- Senee Barrington has depended on the Paterson Community Health Center for immunization shots and medical tests ever since she was a little girl and the center was housed in an old warehouse on Clinton Street.

Barrington, 20 and a home health aide, now takes her son, Quameer Maddan, to the center's new state-of-the-art, 30,000-square-foot, three-story building that officially opened last month at North Main, Clinton and Arch streets in the city's 1st Ward.

Here, Quameer, 2, can get his shots in spacious examining rooms on the first floor, where the tables are decorated with colorful and cheerful cartoon characters. At least one of the nurses remembers Barrington from when her own mother brought her to the center years ago.

"This is really good for the community," Barrington said recently, while waiting to see a pediatrician. "It's one of the many things that we need in Paterson that we were able to achieve."

According to the state Department of Health and Senior Services, there are 17 centers for primary care across the state that provide essential health-care services through 81 sites to the uninsured, immigrants and people who use Medicaid or Medicare. These centers serve approximately 300,000 people, more than 70 percent of whom are women and children.

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