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Celebration puts spotlight on farmworker health
By ESTHER AVILA
Appreciating and honoring farmworkers — that is what the Porterville
Family Health Center was doing Wednesday as they celebrated National
Farm Workers Health Day with a special celebration that included
physical activity demonstration sessions, free nutritional smoothies and
free gifts to anyone visiting the center.
Isabel Olmos, community outreach manager at the center, served
nutritional smoothies — a blended sweet concoction of mangoes, bananas,
strawberries and ice — to patients and visitors while talking to them
about why the importance of National Farm Workers Health Day.
“We just want people to be aware of where their food comes from — who
picks it and how it gets here. Our farmworkers pick it but nobody serves
it to them. Today, we’ll be the ones serving it to them,” Olmos said.
“Farmworkers don’t always get breaks, not like you and I do. Even with
OSHA — we know they’re [suffering] out there in those fields. They work
at 107-degree weather, can’t always wash their hands, and usually have
no cell phone access. Even if they did, they might not know where they
are, because they just get dropped off by their [crew leader] in the
middle of nowhere.”
Olmos handed small bottles of hand sanitizer, lip balm, water bottles,
thermometer key chains and information on dehydration and heat stroke to
anyone who worked in the field and talked to them about the importance
of always carrying a “Garrafon” — a gallon water jug filled with water
and frozen.
“This helps keep them cool. Through the day, the water melts and they
drink it,” Olmos said. “It helps them to stay hydrated.”
One patient, Sally Olmos of Corcoran — not related to Isabel Olmos —
said she completely understood.
“Mom took us out to work at age 6,” Olmos said. “We picked grapes,
plums, oranges, cherries — it was hot and we sweated but still we
worked.”
Sally Olmos, who worked in the fields until she was 18 years of age,
said she especially disliked one particular chore.
“Hoeing was the worst. The lines [in a field] we had to hoe were long
and appeared to go forever. That was the worst — your back hurt so bad
and it was always so hot out there,” Sally Olmos said. “Sometimes not
having enough water out there — I understand. It’s nice to appreciate
farmworkers. They do a lot of hard work. People don’t understand that.
Even when they are sick, they go out. So it’s good to remember them.”
Cassandra Monroe of Porterville, said she agreed.
“I’m not sure people realize how early they have to get up to go to
work. They do a lot,” she said. “We should all appreciate them.”
Porterville Family Health Center combined National Farm Workers Health
Day with National Health Center Week — a week-long observance
recognizing the importance of community health centers in providing
access to affordable, quality health care to an underserved segment of
the United States population.
“The second week of August each year is dedicated to recognizing the
service and contributions of community, migrant, homeless and public
housing health centers in providing access to affordable, high quality,
cost-effective health care to medically vulnerable and underserved
people in the United States,” said Janet Paine, spokesperson for Family
HealthCare Network. “We want to focus the public spotlight on America’s
Health Centers and their work to make sure that everyone who needs a
health care home can have one at a health center.”
This year, the commemoration also recognized the 45th anniversary of the
creation of the Health Centers Program.
The centers serve more than half a million people annually in the Valley
— an indispensable service in a region with 31-percent fewer primary
care physicians and 51-percent fewer specialists than the rest of the
state, said Hilda Martinez, communications director of Central Valley
Health Network, a consortium of 12 community health centers, including
Porterville’s that serve more than half a million people annually in the
Valley and have 2.5 million patient visits.
“Community health centers provide quality, affordable care to millions
who might not otherwise have access to medical care,” said David
Quackenbush, CEO of Central Valley Health Network. “They provide quality
care and have been recognized as models for screening, diagnosing and
managing chronic disease.”
Network wide, 53.81-percent of the patients seen in 2009 were
farmworkers and their families, Martinez said.
Porterville’s center sees between 10,000 to 12,000 patients a month,
said Veronica Loya-Alcocer, clinic manager.
“We open our doors to everyone and accept almost all insurances,”
Loya-Alcocer said. “We also have a sliding fee for those with no
insurance. We make our services available to them.”
Among the services provided at the Porterville HealthCare Network center
are lab, radiology — X-rays and ultrasound, obstetrics and gynecology,
pediatrics, and family practice, as well as health education,
nutritional services, behavior health services, and dentistry.
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