Healthy People 2020: The Mobile Community Health Program

Mobile Community Health Program
Name
Institution of Affiliation
“We should stay on the lookout for marginalized people—people whom we still instinctively think of as “they” rather than “us”…to create a more expansive sense
of solidarity than we presently have” (Rorty, 1989, p. 196).
Rorty’s words remind me of the ever present need to be on the lookout for those among us who are marginalized because of their race, religious beliefs, stature, ethnicity, sexual preference, socioeconomic status, or any of the other “isms” that serve to create a chasm between they and us. How we talk about or label the marginalized (Prahalad, 2005) can reinforce, reinscribe, and give rise to stigmatization and can lead to tainted or damaged identities. Hence, I am proposing a Mobile Community Health Program (MCHP) for this underserved population, there are times when it is not easy or possible to perform an alternative script of health care. Rules and regulations get in the way, socioeconomic situations pull at already overburdened budgets, the patients still do not trust or feel empowered, and the toothless are still toothless.
Overview of the Program
The primary mission of this proposed mobile health and free medical clinics is to provide health care to traditionally underserved populations—who either cannot afford medical care or who have difficulties physically accessing medical care for themselves and their children. The free or reduced services provided includes breast and cervical cancer screenings for those who live at or below 200% of the poverty level, free medical clinic services to the uninsured who live at or below 150% of the poverty level, healthy adult screenings (glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol), and an adult and child immunization program.
The What and Who for this Program
Most of the health clinics will be conducted in two mobile units which are set up at various locations including parking lots, driveways, local school buildings, senior citizens centers, and grocery stores. MCHP will provide free medical services to uninsured patients. The primary MCHP staff will consist of one director, one administrative assistant, one full-time and two part-time van drivers, one nurse practitioner, one certified medical assistant, six registered nurses, and one or two occasional rotating physicians (primarily at the monthly free clinic). Perhaps, osteopathic medical students or students in the AmeriCorps program will observe and assist the nurse practitioner during the clinics.
The MCHP patients, are really poor, but the resiliency and humanity of these people who were very often down to their last bucket of hope. Their physical condition of some of the patients may be toothless, ragged clothing, poor hygiene, and have their own heartbreaking stories of marginalization and stigmatization.
A rationale for the program.
Living under this stressful and inhospitable environment has a direct impact on their health and well-being. These health difficulties are often brought on by conditions such as inadequate or unsafe housing, lack of enough “good” food, dangerous work and domestic situations, low paying jobs and extremely l...