By Ji Hyun Lim
AsianWeek Staff Writer
UC San Francisco recently opened the doors of a free health clinic in Oakland, Calif. to address the health care disparity for low-income immigrant populations in the Bay Area.
The clinic, located in Oakland’s San Antonio/Fruitvale district — where many Latino and Southeast Asians reside — will provide out-patient treatment for people who work in garment factories, restaurants, assembly lines and other high-risk jobs. The clinic hopes to service people who earn less than $22,000 a year and have no health insurance.
“There is a definite need for health care in the low-income, immigrant populations,” Stacey Kono, program director of Asian Immigrant Workers Advocate (AIWA) said. “There is not a lot of emphasis on workplace injuries and this is an exciting project.”
The clinic, sponsored by the Community Occupational Health Project (COHP), came about after UCSF — in partnership with AIWA — worked for two years to target and assess the health needs of garment workers and to identify problems related to workplace injury. After outreach ended in 2001, UCSF partnered with AIWA to create a clinic specifically aimed at garment workers. The clinic was developed in conjunction with ergonomists to find simple and inexpensive solutions to repetitive motion injuries and prolonged pain on the job.
“The main thing is to build trust in the community and to show that the clinic is really going to address immediate needs and develop longer term solutions to the problem of workplace injury for immigrant workers,” Kono commented.
Funded by the California Wellness Foundation and supported by AIWA and the Asian Law Caucus, the clinic is working collaboratively with local organizations to provide multi-lingual services, follow-up care and patient referrals, services that are otherwise inaccessible to many of the immigrant populations in the Bay Area.
Staffed by the UCSF School of Nursing and the School of Medicine, two faculty members from each department — as well as graduate students in nursing and medical residents — will assist in providing basic examinations and treatment for injured or sick clients. The entire staff is un-paid and most of the treatment will be used as part of the training for UCSF students.
“Part of the student training is doing hands-on real work,” Nan Lashuay, assistant professor in the UCSF School of Nursing and the director of COHP said. “Prevention is the real goal and we aim to reduce injuries and pain.”
Lashuay points out that providing solutions for low-income, immigrant populations can be a delicate issue. Many who are injured on the job are hesitant to report their injuries in order to collect workers’ compensation for fear of retaliation, she said. Many of those fears are justifiable because, often, upon reporting their injuries to authorities, workers are fired so that compensation does not have to be granted. Lahuay argues that in such cases, the Oakland free clinic provides confidential treatment and counseling about workers’ rights.
“We constantly see workers who suffer from chronic pain, but feel they must continue to work to support their families,” clinic co-director, Barbara Burgel, said. “We tell them about their health and safety rights on the job and also respect their concerns about job security.”
The clinic hopes to expand treatment to include x-ray examinations and provide counseling for their clients. In the meantime, they are partnering with other health care providers such as Asian Community Mental Health Services for services that the clinic is unable to provide.
Said Kono: “It’s a real challenge to ensure that basic health needs are met. Right now, we’re in a climate that is very anti-immigrant, particularly in the post 9-11 climate. There are a lot of barriers to making sure these programs and challenges are addressed.”
The COHP project office is located at 2647 International Blvd., Suite 108, Oakland. Clinic hours are Mondays from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and drop-ins are welcome between 3:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Services are available in English, Spanish, Cantonese and other languages by prior notice. For more information call 510-496-6006.
Reach Ji Hyun Lim at jlim@asianweek.com.
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