Community Medicine

  MINDY ROSS/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Students who enroll
in Medical Spanish 28A serve as translators at the Venice Family
Clinic shown here.

By Carolina Reyes
Daily Bruin Contributor

Some ethnic minorities around the Los Angeles area don’t
receive ““ or are cautious about receiving ““ adequate
health care.

Often, these residents, especially those who lack proper
documentation or health insurance, may feel more comfortable
seeking help from people of their own backgrounds rather than going
to government agencies, according to Ederlen Casillas, co-director
of UCLA’s Latino Student Health Project.

As a result of the growing need for medical attention among
minority groups, several programs on campus offer UCLA students the
chance to reach out to these communities through volunteering. One
of these groups is LSHP.

“Helping people get the medical attention they needed made
me want to be a doctor even more and made me see the need in our
community,” said Karen Milian, a third-year biology student
and volunteer with LSHP.

The project, which is a part of the Chicanos/Latinos for
Community Medicine, is one of several UCLA student programs that
offer students the opportunity to volunteer or intern and promote
health awareness among minority and medically underserved
communities.

Alex Rodriguez, co-director of LSHP, said the main goal of the
project is to reach out to communities that would otherwise have
little access to medical or health care services.

As part of LSHP, members are required to attend training
sessions to become certified to perform screenings for hypertension
and other medical conditions.

Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin “Two or three
times each quarter we’ll go to different sites such as the
Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights, and we will provide people with
services such as testing for hypertension,” Rodriguez said.
“If they need further care, we have a doctor on site who can
help them or he will refer them to a place where they can get the
proper medical attention.”

LSHP members also provide people in the community with
information and testing for diabetes, high cholesterol and anemia
““ health problems prevalent in Latino communities.

One of the biggest events LSHP participates in each year is an
annual trip to Tecate, Mexico, which is taking place this year on
Mar. 10.

Residents in Tecate receive almost no medical attention,
Rodriguez said. During the day-long trip, LSHP, along with a group
of doctors, provides basic medical services to people in the
community.

In addition to participating in their own activities, CCM
members also take part in other health related projects such as the
Black-Latino AIDS Project.

Alma Lopez, a fifth-year physiological sciences student, said
CCM is like being part of a huge family.

“Every year we try to go to different conferences,”
Lopez said. “The conferences are always a great
experience.”

CCM guides students, not only in their present lives, but also
in their future, said Efrain Talamantes, a fourth-year
psychobiology student.

“CCM helps me think about the ultimate goal I’m
trying to reach, which is to be a physician,” he said.

The Vietnamese Community Health Developmental program is another
group on campus that helps promote health awareness. VCHD is a part
of the Vietnamese Student Union, and was established in 1995 in
order to increase public awareness among low-income Chicano and
Vietnamese families residing in the Orange County area.

Ha Tran, community health director of VSU, said volunteer
responsibilities range from participation in the AIDS walk to
having them coordinate different projects.

Being a part of the program is a positive experience because VSU
takes time to give back to the community, said Matthew T. Nguyen, a
first-year biochemistry student.

“There are a handful of outreach programs that we are a
part of. We go to Orange County twice a week to counsel high school
students; we tutor middle school students on Saturdays and do other
things which we think would help the Vietnamese community as well
as other communities.” Nguyen said.

At the UVSA Orange County Tet Festival, which takes place in
Little Saigon each year, members set up a health booth and provide
free blood pressure readings to community members and also
distribute brochures on the effects of smoking, various diseases
and nutrition.

The Asian Free Dental Clinic, which provides free dental care to
needy patients under the age of 12 works closely with VSU.
According to Tran, members attend training sessions to prepare for
the events.

“We had a training session for the Asian Bone Marrow Drive
and will have a training session for first aid techniques,”
she said.

The Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches fact sheet points out that
bone marrow drives, similar to the one in which VSU participates,
increase the likelihood that minority patients who suffer from
leukemia and other bone marrow-related illnesses will find donor
matches. Asian patients, who have a 40 percent less chance of
finding a donor match than non-Asian patients, greatly benefit from
the drives.

VCHD currently works with the Orange County, Venice and
Chinatown communities.

The Center for Experimental Education and Service Leaning is a
different program on campus that gives students the opportunity to
earn course credit while working closely with community
organizations.

CEESL coordinates a variety of courses that integrate a
fieldwork component into the class. A fieldwork component allows
students to evaluate and apply the lessons they learn in class to
an outside environment.

Medical Spanish 28A, a course offered through the Department of
Spanish and Portuguese, offers students the option to volunteer at
the Venice Family Clinic as translators.

The Venice Family Clinic and volunteer program was founded by
Philip Rossman, M.D., and Mayer B. Davidson, M.D., in 1970,
strictly as an all-volunteer clinic.

Students have many options they can choose from when
volunteering at the clinic that are not necessarily related to
science majors, said Craig Fleishman, director of the Venice Family
Clinic.

“Students can choose to do volunteer work as health
educators, translators, clinic assistants who take vital signs and
pharmacy assistants,” he said.

“And, if the person has unique skills, we are willing to
speak with them on how those skills might be used by the Venice
Family Clinic,” Fleishman continued.

Andrea Giraldo, a fourth-year Spanish literature student who has
been translating at an office for eight years, said she decided to
enroll in Spanish 28A mainly because she wanted to improve her
knowledge of medical terminology.

“By taking this class I was hoping to broaden my
vocabulary so I could communicate with patients in a better
manner,” Giraldo said. “I also thought that in general
it would be a good experience to volunteer.”

CEESL coordinators require students to keep a journal and meet
bi-weekly with them to help them keep track of their learning
experiences.

Many of the courses that Uyen Bui, program coordinator for
Independent Field Studies 199, puts together require students to
volunteer at several clinics.

“All the programs that I coordinate deal with various
health agencies or with a lot of community-based organizations that
provide different health education and health outreach to the
community, particularly the Latino community,” she said.

Other fieldwork classes offered through CEESL include Sociology
197J, Health Care in Transitional Communities; and Medicine 190C,
Research in Health Outreach Issues and Interventions.