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April 30, 2009
Clinic receives grant
By Matt Flumerfelt
The IDS grants are awarded to enhance health care access for underserved
Georgians, according to a press release. The money is part of the
stimulus funding funneled through the Georgia Department of Community
Health’s State Office of Rural Health.
Organizations in other counties also received part of the state’s total
award of $6,964,291.
Migrant Farmworkers Clinic Inc. operates clinics in Lake Park and
Statenville, said Joe Tillman, executive director.
“There is a tremendous need in our area for the services our outreach
workers provide,” said Tillman. “They provide much more than medical
encounters for the farmworkers. They also have relationships with other
agencies who provide clothing, food and other basic necessities
farmworkers are sometimes forced to do without.”
Outreach workers from the Migrant Farmworkers Clinic accompany
farmworkers to doctors appointments to provide translation services,
which can be invaluable to the farmworkers and their families, Tillman
said. Because Migrant Farmworkers Clinic Inc. operates two clinics, the
current staff isn’t always available to meet the high demand for these
services. The additional staff provided by this funding will allow the
clinic to have an increased presence in the farmworker community, he
said.
Some of the additional funding will be used by the clinic to hire an
additional licensed practical nurse. Tillman said it will also enable
the clinic to provide additional educational materials on subjects like
proper nutrition, AIDS and HIV awareness, diabetes, high blood pressure,
pregnancy, and STDs. The educational services provided during outreach
improve the quality of life for the farmworkers and their families, he
said.
The increase in outreach activity will mean an increase in associated
costs for things like gasoline, outreach supplies, and medical supplies.
More patient registrations and medical encounters will necessitate the
purchase of two more office computers, Tillman explained.
Charles Owens, executive director of the Georgia Department of Community
Health’s State Office of Rural Health, said, “The awarding of the IDS
grants allows the State Office of Rural Health to continue its efforts
to build a healthier Georgia by empowering communities to strengthen and
maintain the best possible health care using existing resources. The IDS
grant will make a significant impact on improving health outcomes and
creating and retaining jobs in these communities.”
Julie Clapp is the clinic coordinator for the Lowndes County Migrant
Farmworker Clinic in Lake Park. Clapp said the clinic helps farmworkers
from various South American countries, as well as Mexico and Haiti. To
qualify for the program, workers must show pay stubs demonstrating that
they have worked in the fields for the last two years and earn at least
50 percent of their income from farmwork, she said.
“It takes a lot of compassion to work here,” Clapp said. “Clients can
overwhelm you with their issues, problems with language, transportation,
culture, and so on. We’re here because we care and we want to help.”
The clinic is a primary care facility, Clapp said. Outreach workers
register the farmworkers and do their best to educate them on how to
care for themselves and how to get treatment if they have health
problems. Funding for the program comes from the federal government and
is channeled through the state, she said. Their main office is in
Cordele. They get approximately $250 per year per client, she said.
Anyone can come to the clinic for treatment, Clapp said, but those who
are not migrant farmworkers will pay a slightly higher fee. Most of
their clients are men between the ages of 19 and 51, she said, many of
whom come from Miami, Fla., which is their base. Their Haitian clients
are mostly older but very sweet, she said. Their ages range between 50
and 70, and they are still working in the fields. The Haitians are
considered black, not Hispanic. They speak Creole and French.
“Thank God they have friends, roommates and co-workers who speak English
very well. We speak English to the interpreter, and the interpreter
speaks either Creole or French to the patient,” Clapp said.
Blacks are more likely to have problems with diabetes and high blood
pressure, she said. Clapp also works as a court interpreter. South
American countries each have their own dialect, many of them mutually
unintelligible, she said.
Clapp said clinic staff recently treated a client who had a stroke and
suffered partial paralysis on one side of his body. Sylvia Sanders, who
said she does a little bit of everything at the clinic, transported him
to South Georgia Medical Center for treatment, helped him with intake
paperwork and got him admitted. Sanders said he’s doing much better now.
Lydia Naylor is the staff nurse. She talks to the farm owners and crew
chiefs to find out when crews will be arriving so she can conduct on
site health screenings. She checks workers’ blood sugar levels, blood
pressures, and does urinalysis tests. Clinic staff are trying to get
their female clients annual Pap smears to prevent cervical cancer, she
said. Naylor also does mission work in Honduras with her husband, she
said.
Clapp said the belief that immigrants come to the U.S. looking for a
handout is not true of her clients. She said the migrant workers work
really hard and seldom complain. They complain if they don’t get to work
a full 12 or 14 hours, so they will make enough money to send home to
their families, she said. There’s often no work where they live, she
said, and if there was, they would only make a pittance, not enough to
live on.
“They are not demanding but very grateful for everything we do for
them,” Clapp said.
One of her dreams, Clapp said, is to publish an informational booklet
called “Informa Te,” or Teach Yourself, which will include information
about housing, health care, laws, culture, etc. She also wants to
educate clients on alcohol and depression because that’s a big problem
they’re seeing at the clinic.
“It’s very confusing,” she said, “living in a strange country where they
don’t speak the language. Many of the workers don’t have family here.
They may have other problems going on. It can be depressing.”
Getting a driver’s license can be a big obstacle for her clients because
of language and cultural differences, Clapp said. Laws aren’t as
strictly enforced where they come from, and bribery and corruption are
common. Their problems are compounded when they end up being arrested,
she said.
The clinic has a food pantry, which they use to help clients feel
comfortable about coming back, Clapp said. They provide some staples
like Maseca, or corn flour for making tortillas, beans, rice,
toothpaste, and other hygiene items. The food and some clothing is
donated by individuals and area churches, she said. Kids from some of
the churches collect bags of food and clothes for clinic personnel to
give workers. What they need most is men’s clothing, she said.
The Migrant Farmworker Clinic gets support from various agencies like
LAMP, Telamon Corporation, New Horizons, health departments in
surrounding counties, Valdosta Technical College, Valdosta State
University, America’s Second Harvest of South Georgia Inc., and others,
Clapp said.
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