10.02.20 Binational Health Week in Santa Clara

The County of Santa Clara
October 2, 2020
Live Stream - Briefing Live stream
10:00am PT

Larry Little: Hi everybody. Thank you for joining us. I'm Larry Little. We begin this morning with the focus on the County's collaborative efforts to improve the health and well-being of our Latinx migrant community members during this pandemic. Ricardo Romero Morales, the community health planner with our public health department, joins us this morning to share more information about Binational Health Week. But first we want to let you know that prior to this segment, we did remove our face covering so everyone including our American Sign Language interpreters can clearly and properly communicate the information that we will be sharing this morning. Thanks for being here, Ricardo.

Ricardo Romero Morales: Thank you, Larry. It's a pleasure to be here.

LL: yes, so we want to know all about bi health, Binational Health Week, which is celebrated all month, during the month of October!

RRM: That's right! So by Binational Health Week started in and since the beginning, since 2001 until now, it has become one of the largest mobilizations and it's a collective effort with the community partners, federal agencies, and volunteers. So we have grown to be a large movement, that now is not only a week, but it's also a month. So it's an entire month of a celebration, of services, that we provide to a Latino community, here in the United States and Canada. Binational Health Week is celebrated not only here, in the United States but also in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and other parts of the country as well, such as in Europe. Now Binational Health Week, it's pretty much a mobilization, in, where we provide health screenings, health education, health care, to our Latino community, as well as, we build capacity for those who provide services to our Latino community.

LL: So it's, we've been doing this for some time now. Talk about some of the uh initiatives of the program from pre-previous years. RRM: Yeah so here in Santa Clara County, we actually started by National Health Week in 2005. So last year uh we celebrated our Quinceanera, and this year is our 16th anniversary of Binational Health Week in Santa Clara County. As a matter of fact, I have some pictures to show you uh from last year, and let's see. so here we have a picture of the uh Binational Health Week kickoff event that we have last year at the Eastridge Mall, here in San Jose. Now we also had uh different ,different events throughout the entire month. The picture that we're seeing now, it's a picture of Sourcewise, which are a non-profit organization, who provide education about how to sign up for Medicare, and then we also have uh here is a picture of our closing ceremony, where we have all of our community partners, who participated uh last year. Now in terms of the numbers, last year we hosted more than 26 events, and we were able to reach about 18,447 individuals here in Santa Clara County. We distributed a 107,191 educational materials. and we had more than a 1000 volunteers. We provided uh 982 screenings, and we distributed 284 flu shots. And this is just in the month of October, through Binational Health Week, and we were able to partner up with more than 66 different agencies, here in the County. Now since they've been since the very beginning in 2005 until now, we have been able to reach out to 447,000 uh and counting residents, here in Santa Clara County. Now let me tell you that this year Binational Health Week, it's going to start looking a little bit different. We uh, because of the pandemic, Binational Health Week has been one of the mobile, one of the uh one of the largest mobilizations that we've been having, and now uh we're going to be moving to virtual platforms. As a matter of fact, uh while we were planning Binational Health Week, we weren't sure how things were going to look at this year, and it was mainly because, we wanted to bring Binational Health Week. We know the importance of bringing the services and education to our Latino community, and of course we want to continue to provide those services. So our community partners, and the Santa ... and the Public Health Department got together, and we started to brainstorm different ideas about, about how to operate. or how to plan this year's Binational Health Week. Thankfully! Thanks to all of our partners. the Mexican Consulate here in in San Jose, Telemundo48, uh and other community partners, we were able to bring to you, different resources, to uh, for this year. So now we're planning uh helpers that are virtual. We're planning workshops that are also virtual, uh and we're also going to be focusing on COVID-19 efforts, as well.

LL: Yeah. So talk about some of the services offered, again, to the communicators. This is very important. I mean, because a lot of times, uh you know, our community members are not able to uh get the health care that they need uh such as mental health. So just talk about some of those services provided again.

RRM: Yeah. So there is a lot of fear in our community regarding uh how to access services; that's one of the concerns that we have; one, because there might be their immigration status might be one of those fears; we also have the language barriers, that could be also another fear; or even how to pay for for Medicare services. uh especially now with during COVID-19, how do we, if we get sick, how do we seek those services? how do we go to the ER? like what am I expecting to see? so all those types of issues, we're going to be addressing them throughout the entire month of October.

LL: All right. great. uh We're going to go ahead and bring Stephen into the conversation here. Steven is one of our collaborative partners. Good morning, Steven.

Steven Leon Rubalcava Junior: Hey good morning, guys, uh and thank you very much for having me here today. and yeah thanks for the introduction. My name is Steven Leon Rubalcava Junior, and i work here in Santa Clara County for the non-profit organization, excuse me, nonprofit organization called Sourcewise, and specifically, I work in the Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program; it's commonly referred to as HICAP across the State. Now um as as Ricardo was mentioning, uh it's our 16th birthday here at Binational Health Week, and HICAP by Sourcewise has had a long partnership with Binational Health Week, and I believe that collectively, you know, we do understand the importance of power and informing and educating our community. uh And we also understand the importance of representation and equity, so again I'd like to thank all of our Binational Health Partners that have been involved in one way or another. um We're all doing a really hard job to reach the community, and you're all doing great at it, so I'm glad to be a part of this organization.

LL: Steven, if you could, uh spend a few moments uh sharing information about HICAP if you could?

SLR Jr.: oh yeah yeah so so HICAP what is HICAP? it's it's another acronym, because Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program is a is a lot. So what HICAP does across the State, is we provide free, one-on-one counseling that assists all Medicare beneficiaries, their families, their caregivers, and the main goal is to help them understand their Medicare benefits, and the best health care options for them. And by the way for those that may not know. Medicare beneficiaries are typically 65 years or older. And also real quick, the Sourcewise HICAP counselors, they're all trained, they're all certified by the State of California, and and they all provide Medicare one-on-one appointments. Like Ricardo was mentioning, a lot of it has gone virtual or has gone over the phone, uh but we have been able to reach folks, and make sure that they understand their options, because Medicare is very complex so we have been able to adapt to the community needs; that's kind of what HICAP does in a nutshell. We advocate for Medicare beneficiaries, um and we're not trying to sell them anything.

LL: That's great. A lot of important information, so talk about enrollment if you could. How can people enroll? and is there an enrollment period?

SLR Jr.: so yeah there is a specific enrollment period, um and it's actually coming up! So the biggest time of year for Medicare is called their "annual enrollment period" um which takes place, kind of in alignment with Binational Health Week. It starts on October 15 and then it goes all the way till December 7. Now it's very important because this is when folks can make changes to their various Medicare benefits without having any problems. um And again a lot of them are going to be taking place virtually, so we have uh we have geared up and prepared for a bunch of virtual presentations coming up soon.

LL: Thank you for that information. How is how HICAP operating during uh COVID-19?

SLR Jr: oh my so so like i said, it has been a challenge, but we are definitely determined to provide safe Medicare counseling during this COVID 19 pandemic, so in 2020 for the annual enrollment period, we're launching, we're launching a string of Multi-language Presentations um across the County, and they're all titled Medicare's 2020 annual enrollment period and updates for 2021. So like I mentioned we've partnered with Binational Health Week for a number of years and we've also had long-standing partnerships uh with a lot of other community organizations in the County, Public Libraries, Senior Centers, Community Centers, Health Centers ... so we're using those partnerships to provide, again, some virtual training workshops for Medicare folks throughout this annual enrollment period. So this is where the strength and partnerships and building on those partnerships is extremely important for Sourcewise and everybody.

LL: Thanks so much. Steven. It's so great that you all have been able to continue to provide services during this global pandemic. Let's switch gears and go back to Bi, Binational Health Week. uh Ricardo, let's talk about some of the events that will be taking place uh this year.

RRM: Of course, so uh this year, we um we are planning, like I said, all of our events that are happening this year, are virtually. As a matter of fact, we, I want to go ahead and show you right now, uh the the image for this year's Binational Health Week, so as you can see on your screens right now, uh that's the image that um that we have from Mexico, and this is to celebrate the 20th anniversary uh internationally, like i mentioned earlier here in Santa Clara County, we are celebrating 16 years. And the the the topics that we'll be covering this year include; the uh COVID-19, Mental Health, as well as, as well as, how to sign up for Medicare Services, and other topics as well that are affecting our Latino community, and to in order to address those topics, uh tomorrow as a matter of fact we're having a virtual health fair that's going to be a stream through Telemundo's Facebook page, and we're also going to be sharing it here in Santa Clara County, in where we're going to be talking about um what people should be expecting uh when they visit the ER, if they have uh COVID-19 or if they think they have COVID-19. We will also be talking about their rights as employees, like what happens if they get sick and how can they seek services, as well as, what other resources are out there. um How can they continue to prevent COVID-19 and also highlighting the importance of the flu. uh especially now during COVID-19 times. Now and then the following weekend, on October 10th, we are having our own Binational Health Week testing site, in where we're going to be providing COVID-19 testing to our community, here in San Jose, and that will be located at the Discovery Museum. The times will be from 10 am to 3 pm and again that will be happening on October 10th, it will be a Saturday. And uh we also want to go ahead, and you know people might be asking well I can't remember this information, where can I find it? So we have developed a website and that is www.sccbhw.org, and as you can see on your screens. This is what the website looks like, so once you see that website, you know that you're in the right place. There we have a calendar of events, as you can see, we list them out, all of the events that we have, and at the bottom, there is a actual calendar in where you can click on the blue on the blue boxes and it will tell you what events are happening that day of the month. so that's that's how people can find out about Binational Health Week events.

LL: And what's the website again?

RRM: That website is www.sccbhw.org

LL: all right. Any uh closing thoughts Binational Health Week?

RRM: You know, we want to remind our Latino community that they're not alone. We're in this together. We want to be thankful to everybody who has been patient with everything that has been happening. I know isolation, quarantine, getting tested, social distancing, wearing a face coverings, can be overwhelming. But I want to let you know that you're not alone, we are in this together. and we're trying to come up with different strategies to be here for you and provide the services that we all need.

LL: Ricardo, as always, thank you so much for being here. Steven, thank you for being here as well.

SLR Jr.: Nice to be here, guys.

LL: And thanks for sharing that very important information. I want to remind you that coming up this weekend and almost every day you can get free flu shots here in the county. You can go to sccphd.org/flu again that is sccphd.org/flu to get your flu shots, find out more, information about flu shots. Also today air quality will be unhealthy for sensitive groups, so limit your time outdoors, and don't forget with all this information, we've been providing COVID-19 is real, and it is still out there, so if you're going out, please continue to wash your hands, wear a mask, and practice physical and social distancing. We hope you have a safe weekend. Want to remind you Facebook live in Spanish comes up at 11 am today and every Thursday at 10 am in Vietnamese have a safe weekend everybody. Thank you for watching .

RRM: Thank you