Community Service Alive and Well at LGH

“They touched me spiritually,” said Yukako Tachibana, a third year resident when describing her experience providing volunteer health care services to area migrant farm workers.  Dr. Tachibana or “Yuka” as she is known around the residency program is from Japan and hopes one day to return to her country and practice broad spectrum family medicine in a country that has very little training in the specialty of Family Medicine.  She is spending the summer providing health care to migrant farmworkers in and around Chester and Lancaster Counties as part of the Keystone Rural Health Center Farmworker Program.  Chester County has a large number of migrant farmworkers, primarily working in the mushroom growing industry.  “I was amazed at how open they were to meeting with me and teaching me Spanish.  They seemed very appreciative that someone would volunteer time to talk with them about health care issues,” Yuka said.  Migrant farmworkers are a hidden part of our population, and despite their growing numbers (between 45,000 and 50,000 work in PA alone,) few access available health care services.  Without migrant farmworkers our grocery stores would not have nearly the abundant variety of produce choices.  “I look forward to learning more about this group of people in the U.S. and working with them to stop smoking,” said Yuka.

Migrant farmworker outreach is just one of the community service activities that LGH Family Practice Residents are involved in.  The residency program continues a multi-decade commitment to community service where second and third year residents engage in activities befitting of our department name; Family and Community Medicine.  The Water Street Rescue Mission Free Clinic, begun by a LGH resident over 10 years ago, continues to be staffed on Monday evenings by residents and attendings.  The clinic now is open several days a week providing health care services to Lancaster’s homeless population.  Other residents have been active providing health care and parenting educational talks to the clients of Vantage House, a long-term drug rehab program for women and children in the city.  Other residents have been active in an innovative program called “Boot Camp for Dads” which educates soon to be fathers on all aspects of newborn care.  Residents continue to volunteer time at Country View Manor providing health care to persons at this personal care home in the southern end of the county.  In the Family Health Service, residents are involved in a program called Reach out and Read which helps with literacy education for our younger patients.  New resident-run projects will also focus on culturally-sensitive diabetic and nutrition education in the months ahead.

We are excited that our transition to the new Family Health Service will allow for even more integrated and extensive experience in Community Medicine.  Residents will be given protected time not only to engage in community service but to explore community medicine from a myriad of angles including public health, sociocultural awareness, appropriate use of a community’s health resources and identifying and intervening in the community’s health problems.  This new curriculum in Community Medicine will allow for longitudinal projects in the community, better evaluation and outcome measurement and enhanced continuity of experience.  The future of Family and Community Medicine looks bright!