First Annual Medical
Outreach Symposium: Issues in Migrant Health
By Brittany Jones, Sojourner’s Truth Reporter
Special Contribution to La Prensa
Universal health care coverage is a recurring, heated debate
that has sharply divided U.S.-American society. When it comes to
migrant workers and their access to health care, they are often
denied—even if they have been in the United States for years.
They continue in the cycle of poverty because of small wages
and, thus, can rarely afford proper health care.
Efforts to tackle the health issues of migrant workers were
addressed at the First Annual Medical Outreach “El Puente de
Salud: Issues in Migrant Worker Heath” Symposium at The
University of Toledo’s Health Education Building on February 19,
2010, from 1p.m. - 5 p.m. Physicians, students and others
gathered to listen to speakers and hear stories of migrant camp
experiences.
The goal of the program was to create awareness of health care
issues of migrant workers and to get physicians interested in
the Mobile Migrant Camp Clinic.
Jen Low,
president of Medical Spanish Outreach, saw a need for
medical students to learn how to interact with those of a
different culture and language.
“This symposium is supposed to inspire the medical students to
get out there and not be afraid because of language barriers,”
Low said. “We want them to build that relationship with
communication and help the migrant workers who need all the
health care they can get.”
Vice Provost and Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Patricia
J. Metting, Ph.D., together with Provost and Executive Vice
President for Health Affairs, Jeffery P. Gold, M.D., the
program began with the keynote speaker, Pedro José Greer,
M.D.
Dr. Greer takes the Hippocratic oath to another level.
Throughout his medical career, he has fought for those who do
not have access to healthcare. This passion led to openings of
various free clinics for the “homeless, undocumented, migrant,
and poor of Miami.”
According to his biography, in 1984, he opened the Camillus
Health Concern as a medical intern, which now serves over 10,000
homeless people a year. He has written a book titled “Waking
up in America,” an autobiographical chronicle of his early
years. It reminisces on stories from treating patients
underneath Miami bridges to his days frequenting the White
House.
Dr. Greer’s many accomplishments bought him nationwide
recognition. He was granted the prominent MacArthur “Genius”
Fellowship, three Papal Awards, the Presidential Service Award
presented by Presidents Bush, Carter, Clinton and General Colin
Powell, plus many more. He recently received the “Medal of
Freedom” by President Barack Obama August 2009.
Since he is a physician, Dr. Greer stressed the responsibility
of being in this field to future doctors in the audience. He
highlighted the fact that knowledge of medicine is just part of
the career. Doctors have to learn the surroundings, said Dr.
Greer, and realize that they [physicians] are no better than the
patients are—they just had more training.
“As a physician, you improve the quality of life by sharing
moments, like staying by their bedside through difficult times,”
Dr. Greer said. “This is a field of choices—either for the
greater good or for your pocketbook.”
The program took a turn towards local migrant camps with Luis
Espinoza, R.N., and Wendy Aviña, representative of
the Campaign for Migrant Worker Justice.
Espinoza presented the history of the Mobile Migrant Camp
Clinic. With the help of the St. Charles Mercy Hospital mobile
van, volunteers, medical providers give primary care to the
workers during the summer.
In conjunction with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC),
the clinic gives physical exams, vision screening, HIV/AIDS
testing. They also donate food, clothing and provide
transportation.
The mobile clinic is partnered with many organizations such as
United Way, Food for Thought, Angel’s Arms, and others.
Aviña provided data from the trips, ranging between the years of
2001-2009. Most of the diagnoses were of diabetes and
musculoskeletal problems. Other discoveries were that men made
up the majority of the migrant camp population and that the
average age of workers was getting younger especially after
2003.
She also called for the need of more doctors, translators and
people to do HIV testing.
“The demand for doctors is so high now,” Aviña said. “Sometimes
we have to turn people away because we do not have enough help.”
To get an inside perspective, Baldemar Velásquez,
president of FLOC, discussed the need to improve the relations
between workers and owners. His documentary film, titled “The
Fields,” recalled an incident in North Carolina where
Urbano Ramírez, a migrant worker, died because the owners
ignored his complaints of illness. He was found nine days later
under a tree. It took FLOC three years to win Ramírez’s worker’s
compensation because he was an immigrant and some felt he was
not entitled to those benefits.
“The owners have to respect people’s rights to sit down and talk
about conditions,” Velasquez said.
The symposium ended with a panel discussion about the access to
health care and treatment. It included panelists Richard Paat,
M.D. and Joan Duggan, M.D.
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