Nineteen percent of South Coast residents don’t have health insurance. And overall, 40 percent of adults have not seen their primary care doctor in the past year, according to the results of a two-year community health survey conducted by Puente.

Puente staff and volunteers knocked on roughly 1,500 doors (and gates) to administer the survey, which does double duty as a population census and review of health care access in Pescadero, La Honda, San Gregorio, Loma Mar and their environs. The survey will point Puente toward a future in which its health care programs will succeed and expand to serve the custom needs of our local population.

The survey’s timing is not an accident. Generously supported by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital, the Grove Foundation, and the Mills Peninsula Hospital Foundation, and supported by Stanford University’s Office of Community Health, the results are essential information for Puente in administering the region’s future mobile health clinic.  Starting in 2015, the clinic will come fully staffed with bilingual nurses and doctors skilled in dealing with conditions ranging from diabetes to heart disease. Locals who may not have seen a physician in years will receive excellent care, as well as referrals if needed.

“The mobile clinic stands to make a huge difference, but we needed to make sure it works for everyone,” says Madeleine Kane, the Stanford University community health fellow who played a key role with moving the survey forward and putting together the report this summer. “Hopefully through this data we’ll be able to make a program that fits with what people actually need.”

And who are the populations most in need? According to Puente’s survey, Latinos, who make up 32 percent of the South Coast population, disproportionately lack any health insurance: 38 percent have no health care coverage whatsoever. The results were no less troubling for being predictable. “These data help us know where to look for community members who might still need a hand in navigating complicated systems, and ultimately see a doctor at least once a year for preventative checkups, rather than emergency room care,” says Kane.

Puente’s survey showed that even when people have some form of health care, be it private or government-backed programs like Medicaid, they are not taking advantage.

“Lots of people with health insurance aren’t using it, but we don’t know why,” says Kane. It could be the isolation factor – the nearest clinic is 25 miles away, and the nearest hospital is an hour’s drive. That’s a big problem when local populations are at risk for chronic diseases that require early intervention, like diabetes and high blood pressure.

The next step is figuring out Puente’s place in bridging those gaps. One of Puente’s core health programs is helping community members enroll in health care insurance programs, from Medi-Cal to ACE (Access to Care for Everyone in San Mateo) to new insurance programs under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare).

But no program is perfect. Kane said the survey elicited plenty of complaints about the Affordable Care Act. And while San Mateo County’s unique ACE program provides coverage for residents without legal status or residents who can claim exemption from the individual mandate from the Affordable Care Act, Puente’s survey revealed that only 50 percent of those covered by ACE had seen a doctor in the past year.

The survey laid bare some other discrepancies, like the fact that 73 percent of respondents with a college education had private health insurance, while that number dropped to 14 percent for anyone who never got to high school.  To put it plainly, those with more education are more likely to see a doctor, than those who have less. The intersections between education, class and medical care continue to be troubling.

Puente confirmed that the La Honda population has a high concentration of retirees, in contrast with much of the area, and that many La Honda residents use Kaiser Permanente. Puente will use that information to plan for the medical services the mobile van provides in La Honda, to focus more on geriatric care and mobility limitations. Puente plans to encourage Kaiser to be a part of the medical solution on the South Coast.

But Puente isn’t waiting for the mobile van to conduct medical outreach to the residents who need it most urgently. This year we conducted an unprecedented immunization campaign geared toward farm workers, brought free dentistry into the fields, and won kudos for our efforts from Stanford University and San Mateo County. Puente will be holding the first-ever community health fair on October 19.

A breast exam. An eye doctor. An STD test. These are all reasons someone on the South Coast might drive 25 miles to the nearest health clinic. Fortunately, anyone who comes to Puente’s inaugural community Health Fair on October 19 will have access to all those medical services – for free.

“There is so much need in the community for preventive services and screenings,” says Molly Wolfes, Puente’s Community Health Coordinator, who has organized the fair.

That will change for good once Puente and its partners at the San Mateo County Health System introduce a new mobile health clinic in 2015.

But in the meantime, the Health Fair will have nearly everything on offer, including Puente’s annual flu vaccination clinic, which will no longer occur during Dia de los Muertos. Professionals will be on hand for hearing tests, skin screening, blood pressure and diabetes screenings, family planning, and referrals for everything mentioned above. Information will also be available about health insurance coverage, CalFresh, and the many programs for which eligible South Coast residents can enroll at Puente.

Puente has invited a number of experts to present workshops as well as to lead exercise sessions on yoga and Zumba. Topics include spiritual health, disaster preparedness, repetitive stress injuries, and preventing harmful pesticide exposure for farm workers.

No Puente event would be complete without healthy snacks, and there will be plenty on hand for kids and adults. Thanks to Kaiser Permanente, Puente now has two blender bikes so attendees can take turns pedaling the blenders to make smoothies. Puente will also raffle off cool donated fitness gear.

Bike Rodeo

Kids will be happily entertained by a Bike Rodeo, courtesy of the San Mateo County Bike Alternatives Program, Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance, Silicon Valley Bike Coalition, Siena Youth Center, and BikeSmart.org. Anyone who does not own a bike helmet will be given one to keep.

Puente needs your help to make the Health Fair a success. Before October 19, Puente needs to find an optometrist willing to donate four hours’ worth of free eye exams. Puente also needs two people who can help act as Spanish-English translators; a portable massage table; and additional volunteers to help cook healthy food the day before the Health Fair.

Contact Molly Wolfes to help: (650) 262-5989. The Puente Health fair is October 19, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., Pescadero Elementary School Multi-Purpose Room, 620 North St.

At first glance, entire worlds seem to separate George Collyer and Patrick Letellier from the community of Latino farmworkers and working mothers who form a large portion of participants in Puente’s programs. They’re a gay couple residing in a gated enclave in outer Pescadero.

George Collyer and Patrick Letellier

And yet, both men have their own reasons for giving to Puente – reasons both deeply personal and political, which connect them to the wider community. They give as a couple, making regular monthly donations and chipping in extra when Puente has a unique need, such as blankets for farm workers or back-to-school supplies for local children.

Letellier, a writer, grew up in Connecticut with a single mom and four other siblings. Money was often tight, so the family used donations from the local food bank to get by, and sometimes the local church. That formative experience prompted him to volunteer to distribute food through the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Pescadero. It also compelled him to start giving to Puente. But it wasn’t until Puente founded its Pescadero Grown! Farmers’ Market and launched its Tokens program, which boosts the spending power of low-income shoppers, that Letellier felt compelled to make a monthly commitment to Puente.

“That Puente was not only running a farmers’ market but that they were going to help people to buy more – that just really moved me,” says Letellier.

For his part, Collyer not only speaks Spanish, he’s from Chile. Spanish is his first language. He has a middle-class background, far different from local immigrants who started here with nothing. Yet “I’ve felt some simpatico with them,” Collyer says. “Having grown up in Latin America, I have a lot of respect and admiration for the undocumented workers who support the economy.”

Collyer, a psychiatrist, also knows Puente well, after seeing participants in Puente’s behavioral health programs. He also spoke at Puente’s annual Career Night, a forum for local students to hear from professionals who were the first in their families to go to college.

So their reasons for giving to Puente are personal, but also political. “We eat tons of vegetables that are grown by people locally – the people who are reviled in the media,” says Letellier, referring to pervasive anti-immigrant rhetoric. “I feel like in a really small way we’re part of the other side, which is to support and provide services to people who are helping drive the economy.”

Puente itself takes no political stance on national issues. But by giving children and adults the ability to obtain legal status, education, counseling, vocational training, and healthy food, Puente makes a statement on behalf of every person’s right to improve the conditions of one’s life, regardless of their income or legal status.

“Puente provides those vital resources for people to progress, particularly children,” says Collyer. “By being donors, we’re the lucky ones – we get to help. That’s an incredibly fortunate position to be in. Puente provides us the vehicle for us to be able to help.”

To donate to Puente, please visit https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/puente.