Clinic Adds Flu Shots to Day Laborers’ Checkups
By Natasha Lee, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.
Nov. 2–STAMFORD — Day laborers and passers-by lined up yesterday morning under a highway overpass near State Street to get flu shots and have their blood pressure checked.
For the third year, city health workers offered those free services and free health, substance abuse and mental health screenings, as well as HIV testing to the group of mainly Latino men.
Lenny Holley, 41, said he was delighted about his clean bill of health as he stood in line to get a flu shot — his first in about four years.
Holley’s blood pressure was 100 over 70.
“(The nurse) said that’s excellent, which makes me feel good,” he said.
Holley, who is unemployed and has health insurance, said it’s still tough to pay for costly services.
Free medical checkups like this really help, Holley said.
“It’s a big plus for the community,” he said. “I wish everyone would run up and do what I’m doing.”
At yesterday’s clinic, it was the first time flu immunizations were offered.
By 9 a.m., nurses had administered 28 flu shots and had enough vaccines to treat 150 people.
The informal health clinic has helped ease the fear among day laborers about receiving medical care and raised awareness about the importance of regular health screenings, said the Rev. Juan Paniagua, a day laborer outreach worker with Stamford Partnership, a public-private quality of life organization.
Most of the laborers are undocumented, don’t have health insurance and are preoccupied with earning money to take care of their families and often neglect their health, Paniagua said.
According to a 2006 report by the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, Latinos make up 9 percent of Connecticut residents but are 40 percent of the state’s uninsured population.
Paniagua said he once encountered a man, who after having appendix surgery a week earlier, was standing on State Street seeking work.
At last year’s health fair, another man had turned cloth into a makeshift sling to nurse a broken arm, he said.
“They are the most marginalized and exploited within the Latino community. I think the most important impact is this lets the day laborers know somebody cares about them,” Paniagua said.
The clinic is primarily run by the Lower Fairfield County Regional Task Force, the city Health Department and Liberation Programs Inc., which offers substance abuse treatment.
The services were funded through a $25,000 faith-based federal grant, said Ingrid Gillespie, director of the task force.
The clinic has attracted more people each time, Gillespie said. Last spring, 80 to 100 men showed up, she said. By yesterday morning, 40 men had come.
The clinic started at 7:30 a.m. and ran for about two hours.
Staff members from the Greenwich Health Department and Optimus Health Care, a federally qualified health center, were also on hand to assist nurses and provide information.
The Stamford Health Department’s HIV Mobile Van administered testing.
According to the health department, about 120 people in Stamford were diagnosed with HIV from 2002, when the department began reporting cases, to June of this year.
Of those cases, almost 33 percent are Hispanic, according to Health Department information.
Joey Jimenez, Latino coordinator counselor for Liberation, said offering HIV testing has helped reduce the stigma and anxiety associated with the disease and encouraged people to get tested and receive proper treatment.
Outreach and prevention information at Latino churches is also helping, he said.
“It used to be seen as a sin. Now, we have lots of people getting tested,” he said.
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