Through check-ups and other counseling programs, the clinic staffs are trying to help community residents understand how to prevent illness and stay healthy, as well as providing treatment for people once they become ill.

The Cambridge Neighborhood Health Centers are not without problems. Most important, many of them are severely underutilized. The clinics are a relatively new phenomenon and many neighborhood residents still think they must go to a hospital for good health care. Other residents believe the clinics are only for the poor. To combat these false beliefs, the clinics and community groups are starting publicity campaigns to spread the word about the available services to all Cambridge residents.

Besides being a new phenomenon, Cambridge's small, neighborhood-based health clinics are important in another way. The clinic system bucks the medical industry's tendency to create large, capital-intensive hospital centers.

Adult and Pediatric Health Clinics Neighborhood Family Care Center 105 Windsor Street

M.E. Fitzgerald Health Center 70 Rindge Avenue

North Cambridge Health & Social Services, Inc. Jefferson Park

Adult Health Clinics Riverside Clinic 5 Callender Street

Cambridgeport Clinic 150 Erie Street

Mary Castriotta Clinic 663 Cambridge Street

Pediatric Health Clinics King School Health Center 100 Putnam Avenue

Kennedy School Health Center 158 Spring Street

Harrington School Health Center 850 Cambridge Street

High School Health Center 1700 Cambridge Street

As one doctor at Cambridge Hospital said recently, the neighborhood health clinics, with their decentralized locations, personal atmospheres and emphasis on low-cost health maintenance, are places where those who believe in socialized medicine can gain a foothold.