Winter 2001
Winter 2001
Berkeley students help outreach effort
by Doreen Moreno
Roughly 10,000 Berkeley residents, including 4,000 children, lack health insurance. A high percentage of these uninsured children and their families suffer from chronic illness and use emergency rooms as their primary source of care. Many of these children do not receive proper immunizations and experience prolonged school absences. Pregnant mothers without insurance are less likely to receive prenatal care which is linked to low birth weight and later possible learning disabilities.
In recent years, cuts made in social services and welfare reform have magnified the problem. "The city has been challenged to address this health crisis in a broad context," declared Mayor Shirley Dean. "Diverse community support is critical to educate residents that publicly funded health coverage is available as well as to highlight the tremendous need for additional resources."
Three years ago over a dozen organizations, including the City of Berkeley, UC Berkeley, the Berkeley school district, hospitals, insurance companies, community health centers and advocates for the uninsured, formed the Mayor's Task Force on the Uninsured. The task was two-fold: find the uninsured and match them with available insurance and inexpensive health care. The task
force was also instrumental in creating the Lifelong Primary Care Clinic, which has
(from left to right) UC students Sabra Foley and Mayra Alvarez meet with Mayor Shirley Dean, UC Community Health Promotions director Abby Rincon, and Doreen Moreno from CAl's Office of Community Relations to review health insurance eligibility flyers that will be distributed to target areas throughout the city.
provided over 3,000 uninsured patients with medical and dental care in the past year alone.
Lack of access to health insurance is more common among low- income populations and racial minorities. In Berkeley a high concentration of those without insurance live in south and west Berkeley. To reach this large and diverse group of uninsured and often undocumented residents, a multilingual and multiracial group of UC students, sponsored by UC Berkeley's Tang Health Center, has worked for the past two years to raise community awareness.
"The UC Berkeley students bring a strong commitment and energy to the process and have been a huge asset to the city in identifying eligible residents," says Mayor Shirley Dean. Last year, Cal students assisted over 900 Berkeley residents with health coverage information.
This year's student group, dubbed Cal SHINE (Students for Health Insurance in Neighborhoods), has developed an outreach strategy and public information campaign to target large organized groups. "We'll be working with schools and churches because they have been identified as the conduit to people whoneed our assistance the most," says UC senior Sabra Foley. "People trust their pastors and school personnel and they can help us in our public education efforts through their direct encouragement and serving as a resource for database lists."
In January Cal SHINE students will staff tables at Berkeley churches with health coverage applications and information on specific locations that assist with the application process. In addition, brochures will be sent home with every Berkeley Unified School District student explaining the Medi-Cal and Healthy Families insurance programs. Flyers and posters will be posted in key community locations throughout the city and billboards placed on AC transit buses.
"We want to heighten the public awareness, particularly in minority communities, that free health insurance is available and to stress the importance of preventive medicine for children and families," says UC sophomore Mayra Alvarez.
