If you would have asked Dr. William Marcil if he deserved credit for his work with the Magis Clinic at the Siena/Francis House, he would have said no. His students, however, disagreed.

Marcil, associate professor of psychiatry, will receive the Good Samaritan Award as one of the 2010 Heroes of the Heartland on March 3.

Marcil is being recognized for his help with the Magis Clinic since 2006. The free clinic is run by medical students and serves the homeless. Marcil has been the only person consistently staffing it.

Marcil’s students wanted to publicly honor him.

“We thought, well, yes, the clinic does great things, but we really felt like Dr. Marcil deserved individual recognition because the clinic is sort of generic,” Marley Doyle, fourth year medical student, said. “Nobody really knows who’s doing the inside work.”

With the help of Diana Wagonner, the executive director of the Kim Foundation, which provides resources for mental health patients, they found the American Red Cross award. The award was to go to someone who was, “opening doors, changing attitudes and healing the sick,” Wagonner said in an e-mail. To her and the students, it seemed like a perfect fit.

“We felt like he really deserved to be recognized for all the things he does that he wouldn’t promote himself for,” Doyle said.

Marcil was the first person to staff the clinic when it opened in February 2006, and he has continually been the only consistent physician to staff it since. He said an acute care clinic was founded in 2005, but after the students observed a lot of patients needing psychiatric care, they decided there was a need for a subspecialty clinic.

“Over time, it has been a pretty reliable source of service to these homeless people in terms of the demand being pretty good for the clinic,” Marcil said in a phone interview.

As far as Marcil knows, the Magis Clinic is the only free, student-run clinic specializing in psychiatry in the country.

The clinic works with nurses in the community who visit homeless shelters and make referrals to the clinic. The clinic then treats the patients.

“The objective is to refer them early in the process and to have them not have to wait for the resources that are out there in the community that take weeks and weeks to get,” Marcil said.

According to Wagonner, an estimated 60 to 80 percent of the homeless population has a mental illness and up to 80 percent of homeless veterans suffer from a mental illness, often post-traumatic stress disorder or depression.

“I feel like our clinic serves that kind of keystone,” Doyle said. “But I feel like people aren’t aware of how prevalent this really is … This is really out there; it’s not just something you read about. It’s in the community.”

On a visit to the clinic, Wagonner was amazed with how the students treated the oftentimes difficult patients.

“I was so impressed with the courtesy and kindness of the medical students,” Wagonner said. “They treated each patient with respect, dignity and patience.”

Once she met Marcil, she understood where the students picked up these skills.

“Dr. Marcil obviously cared with deep compassion for the patients he saw,” Wagonner said. “[He] respected them as people, saw them not just as a person with PTSD or somebody with Bipolar Disorder, but he saw them as people suffering the effects of an illness, exhibiting the behaviors of an illness, needing help and hope and trust.”

Doyle said although she’s learned many medical practices from him, what struck her most was his commitment to service.

“I feel like sometimes when doctors are more established or they get older, they sort of lose that drive to help serve,” Doyle said. “So it’s really inspiring for me to work with somebody that’s kept that and has persisted every day for the past three years.”

Although Marcil is quick to point out that he is not the only professional involved in helping the Magis clinic succeed, and even confessed being embarrassed by the attention, he feels gratified.

“I was very appreciative of the recognition. It’s pretty impressive,” Marcil said. “I was very touched that people were concerned about bringing some reinforcement and the award.”

Marcil is a graduate of Creighton and attended Creighton Medical School. He did his psychiatric training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston before returning to Omaha. He worked in a private practice for eight years and joined the Creighton faculty in 1999.

Marcil can most often be found at the VA Medical Center-Omaha where he works in the psychiatric department and helps teach the medical students and residents.

Marcil sees himself working at the Magic Clinic as long as he works at Creighton.

“I will continue to be available as long as I’m on faculty,” Marcil said. “I think the two go together now — The students have to rotate and move on, but it’s pretty reinforcing to work with the students in general because they’re all so capable and motivated to make it a nice operation.”

Wagonner is appreciative of the support Marcil and his students bring to the mental health patients in the homeless community.

“Dr. Marcil and the Magis Clinic offer hope to so many who would otherwise feel hopeless and helpless,” Wagonner said. “Do I think this free clinic has changed the way homeless people in Omaha receive mental health treatment? Yes! Do I think Dr. Marcil and his students are one of the best things that has happened in Omaha? Yes!”