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Community outreach Posts

A New Outlook

by suelowe
Will Dean

A New Outlook

For Desert Healthcare District and Foundation Director of Communications and Marketing Will Dean, it’s all about showing up.

Words by Daniel Hirsch • Photos by Lani Garfield 

As seen in Issue 4 of DAP Health Magazine

Will Dean knows how to deliver a message to people. “It’s about meeting people where they are, whether that’s in their actual workplace, like the farm fields, or in their churches,” he says. 

Meeting People Where They Are

As director of communications and marketing for the Desert Healthcare District and Foundation, Dean’s job is to raise awareness about the efforts of the District’s partners to equitably advance health and wellness throughout the Coachella Valley.

For him, meeting people where they are takes many forms. It’s in standard communications work: relaunching a website, drafting press releases, updating social media. Or it could mean promoting farmside mobile clinics to ensure agricultural workers have access to vaccines, as Dean did for the District throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Communication as Key to Healthcare Access

As Dean explains, health care access relies on communication — about what people needing care understand about their resources, and about what providers are able to hear from prospective patients. “Not everyone has the same opportunity to access care. There are barriers that people face, such as language barriers or lack of transportation,” he says. “Listening to people and their stories is so important to understanding why they may not seek care.”

Advocating for Equal Access

Dean’s ability to communicate on behalf of health care campaigns has benefited DAP Health. Since 1999, the nonprofit has received $3.5 million from the District’s grant program. This funding has supported everything from efforts to computerize patient records to running an HIV-testing van parked outside of gay bars.

According to former District CEO Dr. Conrado Bárzaga, Dean effectively advocates for equal access to health care because he’s committed to hearing directly from the people that benefit from it.

“He goes to the homeless encampment where we’re serving those community members… It really enhances the work, to tell the stories from a very truthful perspective,” says Bárzaga. “He’s someone who is always looking to do what’s right, to communicate in a very sensitive manner the importance of bringing equity to the distribution of health care.”

From Journalism to Healthcare Advocacy

Dean’s sensitivity for reaching people comes from a decades-long career as a journalist. It may also come from the acute understanding of the experience of not always being the recipient of the stories and media that one might want or need.

Growing up in the 1970s in Hardinsburg, Kentucky — a rural county seat with a population of roughly 2,000 people — Dean was a voracious magazine reader. He’d read anything he could grab, from Reader’s Digest to TV Guide. But as a young Black person who knew he was gay from an early age, Dean would rarely see himself reflected in the media he consumed. Copies of Jet and Ebony provided what Dean describes as “a variety of examples of Black excellence and possibility,” but finding Black LGBTQ+ stories proved harder.

The eye for good writing and deep appreciation for meaningful representation stayed with Dean throughout his journalism career, starting in his 20s at the Park City Daily News in Bowling Green, Kentucky and working for papers like the Savannah Morning News. 

After a mid-career Knight Fellowship at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Dean landed in Palm Springs for a community editor role at Gannett daily The Desert Sun. There, he fulfilled a dream he’d had ever since he was that magazine-devouring boy: running a magazine all his own. From 2012 to 2018, he edited Desert Outlook, a monthly LGBTQ+ publication published by his employer.

“It came about because our then executive editor, Greg Burton, called all the editors into a meeting and asked us if we thought an LGBTQ+ publication would work here,” says Dean. “And, if I recall correctly, everyone said no — except me.”

Starting in 2012, Dean ran Desert Outlook with a passionate meticulousness, leading a small team of writers and designers. The monthly printed stories on same-sex marriage and the migration of HIV patients to the desert. Dean fondly remembers interviewing actor Cheyenne Jackson, who gave Dean an equally memorable muscle-bound hug. It was a public-facing role that had Dean attending events multiple times a week— restaurant openings, political gatherings, theatre premieres, and more. 

“He had high standards, and he was very conscientious about basically everything he did,” says Michael Jortner, an Outlook contributor and longtime friend of Dean. “He would be on every photo shoot to make sure it was as close to what he was looking for. And it was the same with the writers.” 

Transition to Healthcare Leadership

After Outlook published its last issue in May 2018, Dean didn’t stop to rest. He started work at the District that June. He filled a position that has made great use of his journalism skills and editorial eye, overseeing the publication of the District’s first history book — telling the story of how the foundation formed in 1948 to build Palm Springs’ first hospital, only to grow to grant $80 million to local health care nonprofits. Working with Riverside University Health System, Dean is poised to launch a public health campaign about harm reduction related to fentanyl overdosing.

The demands of Desert Outlook and the District pushed Dean to take a “social hibernation” from the arts, culture, and community events that have so defined his time in Palm Springs. (Dean has also been on the boards of various organizations, such as Dezart Performs and Brothers of the Desert.) It’s a slow-down that Dean says he’s newly emerging from. Recently, he’s worked on his own writing projects, such as contributing a profile of jazz drummer Daniel “Big Black” Ray to Palm Springs Life.

Embracing Diversity and Inclusion

Dean is also launching a new, roving social club called The Mix Palm Springs, which focuses on fostering and celebrating diversity in social spaces. A recent summer camp-themed event at resto bar Reforma featured the lawn game cornhole (AKA bean bag toss) and s’mores. “It’s highly curated at the moment,” says Dean of this new venture, which is currently open by invitation only. “But that’s also part of ensuring that people know it’s a safe, welcoming space.”

Attention to detail. Respecting people’s needs. Showing up. All in a day’s work for Will Dean.

The Plight of the Migrant Farmworker

by suelowe
Portrait of Farmworker

The Plight of the Migrant Farmworker

 

The health care needs of an essential yet marginalized community require special attention that is long overdue.

As seen in Issue 4 of DAP Health magazine 

Words by Trey Burnette

Invisible Yet Indispensable: The Role of Migrant Farmworkers

Migrant field workers are one of society’s most indispensable people. They’re the frontline of not only the United States’ $162.7 billion agricultural industry but, arguably — considering their hands are the first to touch the harvested food consumed by virtually all Americans — of the nutrition and health care industries. 

The Health Crisis: Neglected Needs of a Marginalized Population

They’re also one of the most marginalized and neglected populations. A whopping 23% of farmworkers in the U.S. live in poverty. The average individual’s annual income falls between $12,500 and $14,000 ($17,500 to $19,999 for families). And neither does the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (which permits private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and go on strike) nor the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (which preserves the right to a minimum wage and “time-and-a-half” overtime pay for toiling more than 40 hours a week, plus prohibits the employment of minors in “oppressive child labor”) cover most workers. Beyond the low pay and lack of many workplace protections, health care is one of the most significant stressors for farmworkers. Some 25% of them depend on community health centers. 

Barriers to Wellness: Challenges Faced by Farmworkers

Of the 2.5 million farmworkers who live and work in the U.S., 500,000 to 800,000 reside in California. Their age falls between 14 and 61, and most have been working for 18 years. Some 34% of them identify as women. Another 400,000 are minors.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that, of the 1,015,162 agricultural workers and their family members who received health services, the most common diagnoses were being overweight/obesity (25.5%), hypertension (11.4%), diabetes (9%), anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (5%), other mental health issues (7%), and asthma (2.5%.) But that isn’t the full scope of the health issues facing this community, because only 56% of U. S. field workers have health insurance. In California, that number drops to 37%. No matter where they are, many never seek help.

Expanding Healthcare Access: Medi-Cal's Impact on Undocumented Residents

Israel Ochoa manages DAP Health’s Centro Medico Oasis in the agricultural town of Thermal, just southwest of Mecca. He is the son of migrant farmworkers, and most of his days are spent serving farmworkers and their families. His assessment of his clinic’s patients aligns with the national statistics. He says access to affordable, nutritious food is a leading cause of their health issues. Fieldwork is arduous manual labor; the workers are up before sunrise and have to power through an excruciating workday. They rely on inexpensive sugary beverages like Gatorade, colas, and juices to stay hydrated and maintain energy, and eat a lot of processed food that “keeps” and can be eaten throughout their long workdays.

Furthermore, their children’s diets are not immune to their parents’ work schedules. Typically, 2.5 families live in one mobile trailer, and the kids are usually left with breakfast food they can make without having to turn on a stove — cereal, Pop-Tarts, or microwavable dishes. All eligible California children can get a no-cost breakfast and lunch at school, but obtaining those meals in the summer is difficult, if not impossible, because moms and dads can’t afford, or aren’t allowed, to take time off work.

Community Outreach: Bridging Gaps in Healthcare Education

Fear of being fired is also why workers don’t take personal or medical time off. They’re generally contracted, getting paid in two ways: by the hour ($15.50, plus 40 cents per box of product harvested and packed) or just by the box (about $4.25 per). Workers should get three sick days per season, but aren’t paid if they don’t work. Most avoid reporting job injuries for similar reasons. 

There are many other barriers to prosperity for farmworkers in the U.S. The lack of legal residence status is an obstacle. Nationally, 64% of workers are estimated to be undocumented — that figure is 75% in California — and most government programs, except for emergencies and sliding-scale payments, require documentation. Fortunately, on January 1, 2024, Medi-Cal expands full-scope health care for all income-eligible residents of California, regardless of immigration status. Obtaining preventive and routine care at a clinic will help people avoid emergency room visits and more severe illnesses. 

Empowering Through Education: Overcoming Educational Hurdles

Veronica Garcia is a care coordinator specialist regional coordinator and certified enrollment counselor at DAP Health. Alongside five siblings, she was raised in Coachella by her single farmworker mother, who also toiled at a citrus-packing plant. She does frontline community work and says her employer has an excellent outreach program. With the expanded Medi-Cal program, more people will be counseled and given health care. Outreach is critical because health workers can personally converse with farmworkers and clarify program misunderstandings. Many people think government programs, like Medi-Cal or the Medically Indigent Services Program, are debt services, so people hesitate to utilize them. 

Addressing Essential Needs: Affordable Housing and Nutrition Education

In addition to program education, Dr. Frank Figueroa — a councilmember for the city of Coachella who serves on DAP Health’s board of directors, as he did on Borrego Health’s board of trustees — says other fears about using programs can be laid to rest. He, whose grandparents and parents were farmworkers, states there’s the belief that those applying for permanent residence, work visas, or citizenship will be “flagged,” only to face negative consequences like losing rights they currently have, or could gain in the future. Undocumented workers are scared of deportation if they seek help. Applying DAP Health’s educational outreach to explain legal rights, enrollment, and using health care benefits will spur great progress in the health of this population. 

Education is also a challenge toward that progress. It’s estimated that 78% of farmworkers lack a high school diploma, with ninth grade being the average level of education. Just over 1% of these employees have a college degree, so there is a need to improve technology literacy.

Riverside County Supervisor Manny Perez, a son of migrant farmworkers, says that one of the many things that make DAP Health a superior federally qualified health center (FQHC) is its ability to provide affordable housing, a significant need for farmworkers as rents increase. He also strongly advocates for community clinics because they can address specific community needs like nutrition education through ancillary services. 

While Perez believes community health centers like Centro Medico Oasis are expertly poised to provide care for the rural poor, Ochoa insists finding health care providers to serve in remote locations such as Thermal is a challenge. All true. But it’s a challenge DAP Health is determined to meet as it endeavors to bring better wellness to this vital yet often-forgotten populace.