time, the percentage of people on MediCal was much lower, and the county's Community Hospital could provide adequate care for the medically indigent. As social service reservoirs began drying up, the health care crisis spread in epidemic proportions, causing tremendous growth in patient volume, the number of staff employed and services provided. "Westside" no longer exclusively serves the west side. The health center is also committed to providing services for people commuting from as far north as the migrant farmworker camps in Pescadero (southern San Mateo County), and as far south as the Pajaro Valley (northern Monterey County). A satellite clinic has been added for well-child care, serving the families who live in remote areas of the Santa Cruz mountains. Jody Peugh, Lab Manager and Westside's oldest staff member, says that, "...what began as a neighborhood advocacy group's dream for a funky little neighborhood clinic unfolded into north county's major player in community medicine." The past few years, the health center's most important role in advocating for increased access is ensuring that Westside services expand. The clinic moved into a larger, better equipped facility at a more central location to handle a 78% increase in the number of clients receiving care at the health center. From 1990 to 1991, the percentage of MediCal patients increased from about 33% to 52% of all visits. In these times of recession, layoffs, AFDC cuts, decreasing employer-sponsored health benefits, and minimal numbers of MediCal providers in Santa Cruz County, the demand for Westside's services by low-income clients continues to increase. The clinic is advocating for local primary care expansion through a massive capital campaign by stressing the importance of the people's needs, how they are being met, and the evaluation of services in lifting the burden of disability and improving health. Michael Walker, ChairperPage 10 RAIN Summer 1996 Volume XV, Number 1 son of the Board of Directors, explains that, ".. .local advocacy for community medicine has turned into somewhat of an epidemiological nightmare. In this ball park, advocating for sociomedical reform is all about approaching City Hall and a vast array of private foundations, with well prepared data that explicitly reveals the local community's barriers to primary care, the socioeconomic groups which are at greater risk for untreated illness, and how the county's public health system eventually pays the price of prenatal care that is not given, immunizations that are not provided, cancers that are not detected, diabetes and hypertension that are not monitored, and mental illness that is not discovered." This is why the health center has included advocating for further recognition and development for communitybased medicine at the local level. One of the ways the clinic advocates for support is by developing its Community Involvement Campaign. The staff scout for people representative of the populations served, and train them as health aides and community health care advocates. The active participation of community members validates the health center as a community-based medical clinic. The Board and clinic personnel network within existing social, political and production-related organizations to secure the health center's future. It is at these local institutional levels that the community can rally a collective voice to effectively push for local support. Westside has put together a volunteer Medical Assistant staff and seeks further patient representation on the Board of Directors. This entails community outreach, education materials, training and project coordination. In the past, Westside has had volunteers and board members trickle in and out, but with both State and federal programs cut, the clinic has no choice but to seek further community support in the form of hands-on participation both in the clinic and for their Capital Campaign. The purpose is to put the word out on t~e streets that there is a network of locallybased health centers, and that we can all get actively involved in looking out for the community's basic right to health care. At Santa Cruz's Westside Community Health Center, the staff continues to serve the community under strained working conditions', low wages, and minimal benefits, because they believe that a health care system which neglects the basic human needs of its members puts the community as a whole at risk. Morgan Stryker, Physician Assistant, advocates that, " ...to the degree that the greater 'for-profit' medical system isolates itself from America's
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz