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1st appeared
18
April 2000
UCSF Team to Treat Sweatshop Workers A team of UCSF practitioners will be among the first in the nation to target their care to a particularly vulnerable population – garment workers. More than 20,000 mostly Asian immigrant women throughout the Bay Area spend many hours a day hunched over sewing machines in sweatshops that are typically cramped, poorly ventilated and full of workplace hazards. Robert Harrison, a UCSF occupational medicine physician, will be among the clinicians to reach out to these typically overworked and underpaid seamstresses at a new clinic to open April 26 in Oakland. A joint venture of the community-based organization Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA) and UCSF, the clinic will operate for the first two years on a grant of $100,000 from the California Wellness Foundation. The Asian Immigrant Women Workers Clinic is designed not only to treat pain and disability of these workers, but to document the incidence of their disorders. While sweatshop working conditions have been the focus of increased attention from the US Department of Labor and advocacy groups in recent years, the work-related medical problems of the poor, immigrant workers have largely been ignored – until now. "One of our hopes for the clinic is that we will be able to document the health problems of garment workers," says Barbara Burgel, clinical professor in the department of community health systems of the UCSF School of Nursing. "Better information on the extent, and, most importantly, how to prevent these injuries is crucial. It could also improve the lives of many working women." Working 10-hour shifts as much as seven days a week, garment laborers typically suffer from musculoskeletal disorders such as tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff syndrome and bursitis. When approached by AIWA a year ago to explore the feasibility of providing services to these workers, Harrison says he "jumped at the chance." Harrison consulted with AIWA on the grant proposal, and once funded, he, Leslie Israel, assistant clinical professor of occupational medicine and Burgel have been working with AIWA on clinic implementation and additional grant proposals for the clinic. Harrison currently sees patients who come to Mount Zion’s occupational health clinic and San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center for treatment of work-related injuries and illnesses. Most of his patients are workers from postal services, city employees and high-tech and dot-com computer users, he says. Occasionally, he treats painters with respiratory problems. But while a few seriously injured garment workers show up in emergency rooms, most remain unknown and untreated – unwilling to seek care. "There are economic and cultural barriers to serving this community," Harrison explains. "The economic barriers for many of them who work for relatively low wages is fear of complaining and losing the family’s income. The cultural barriers exist because of the intimidation and discomfort they feel coming to a facility outside their community." The clinic, to be located in the heart of Oakland’s Chinatown, the area most familiar and comfortable for garment workers, will offer free screenings and basic treatment for work-related problems as well as provide physical therapy and ergonomic training. Harrison hopes to recruit more practitioners from UCSF and the community to provide care at the clinic, which will be open two evenings a month. UCSF faculty also will work with the AIWA to document the health problems and access issues of these workers, which they hope will lead to workplace improvements and better health care. "The clinic offers a unique opportunity to reach out to a diverse workforce, an opportunity that will be offered to students as well," says Harrison, adding that the schools of nursing and medicine both have active training and research programs in occupational health. "What we’re hoping is that by beginning to treat garment workers we will eventually be able to work cooperatively with their employers," Harrison says. "Our intent is to reach out to employees as well as their employers, but we currently don’t have capacity to offer unlimited consultations in preventive health for employers. "We believe by first identifying the need for care, we may be able to find additional sources of funds. We really view this as a first step." Links: Asian Immigrant Women Advocates California Wellness Foundation Source: Lisa Cisneros, Newsbreak Editor |
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