Some 100 faculty, staff, students and alumni from UCSF's School of Dentistry and other departments took part July 20 in what can be considered a turning point in the health care of the underserved at the tenth annual Su Salud Health Fair.

It was the last time health care workers would offer migrant farm workers and other impoverished California residents free medical screenings and education in preventative health care during a one-day event. After a successful fundraising effort, Su Salud Inc. was able to procure enough charitable donations to finance the construction of a new building in Stockton that will house a health education center to provide screening, referrals and information year-round, says Nelson Artiga, director of the Family Dental Center at San Francisco General Hospital who has organized the UCSF contingent to the fair for the past six years.

The new education center will be divided into seven learning areas, such as cancer and maternal health, and will include models, videos and other instructional aids geared to get the whole family involved in maintaining their health, Artiga says.

“We discovered that for the same amount of money that it takes to run a one-day affair, we can run the health education center year-round,” Artiga says. “This will give people greater access and, as the center becomes more widely known and more widely used, it will have an everlasting impact on the needy whose best chances of staying healthy are through education and prevention.”

Su Salud, which means 'your health' in Spanish, has been the nation's largest all-volunteer health fair. Every year thousands of California's poorest families descend upon San Joaquin Fair Grounds in Stockton to receive screenings and referrals for a number of ailments ranging from diabetes and tuberculosis, to breast cancer and AIDS. All of the Su Salud staff are volunteers and local medical institutions donate the medication and supplies.

For some poor families, Su Salud is the only source of health care they have ever received. In past years, as many as 18,000 participants traveled from as far away as San Diego and Oregon to benefit from the event. Nearly 95 percent of the participants are Hispanic. Most are migrant workers, poor, uninsured and, frequently, illiterate.

Under the leadership of Artiga -- who was recognized in April with the Chancellor’s Award for Public Service -- volunteer dentists and students offer dental screenings for conditions such as tooth decay, gum disease, oral cancer and diabetes. The screenings are part of larger mission which includes referrals for future care, patient education, research and continued education for dentists.

"Su Salud is a continuation of that recognition by the founders a decade ago that there are incredible levels of unmet health care needs in the community and that it makes sense from a public health point of view, not only to screen people, but to refer them to appropriate health facilities and to educate them in prevention," Artiga says. In accordance with the founders' vision, Artiga and his volunteers stress education in what he calls the "10 concepts of oral health." Just outside the dental health pavilion, students aided by Spanish language interpreters walk patients through a dental education area lined with vivid posters illustrating good dental hygiene and risks resulting from the lack thereof. During the screenings, fourth-year dentistry students reinforce the educational concepts taught as they examine and talk with the patients.

Some members of the UCSF Su Salud team. (Photo by Cynthia Artiga)

The migrant families are not the only ones who learn at the fair, however. By volunteering at Su Salud, Artiga says students have an opportunity to work with a unique patient population, and as a result, have a better understanding of the wide range of public health issues facing the state.

"Migrant workers are exposed to risks not faced by other populations, says Artiga. "For example, they work with pesticides and they are at a higher risk for oral manifestations of diabetes. Many are uneducated, do not understand basic medical terms or concepts and, often, they are afraid of health care systems."

But Artiga says the panic and fear among immigrants who were initially apprehensive after the passage of Prop 187 has decreased in the past year after he and others conducted a campaign to reassure folks that they would provide health care to citizens “regardless of their immigration status.”

To prepare his volunteers for the challenges serving this population, Artiga has developed a day-long course for his volunteers, which he administers the day before the fair. Of most value, perhaps, Artiga says, is the sense of satisfaction dentists and students get through volunteering. "It’s such an incredible feeling,” he says, "the patients are extremely grateful, and the students develop a sense of the type of humanitarian work available through volunteering. It’s a very powerful and noble experience."

By Vincent Pearson

1st appeared 7/28/97