CR#4: Context of Rotacare
Name of organization you work with:
I work with RotaCare in the kaiser building in San Rafael
Stated mission of the organization:
The San Rafael RotaCare Clinic treats patients with minor illnesses or injuries. Each month specialty clinics are conducted with specialists in dermatology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, psychiatry, and ophthalmology. They operate a Transitional Care Clinic for patients with chronic conditions who meet certain criteria. We also have appointments for consultation with a registered dietician and a diabetes educator. After an initial visit with a RotaCare doctor, referrals will be made to specialists, as appropriate.
What are the programs/services provided?
Free health clinic for people who have some type of injury or illness.
What is the targeted issue(s)? What is the target population?
The target population is low income member who can’t afford healthcare.
What are some identified qualities/qualifications for people to be part of the program/services?
They must need medical help or a check up on their health.
They must be i’ll, have some type of injury.
Larger context of Marin County (or the county of your community engagement)
What is the composition of the county’s population?
The composition of the counties population is white, black, latino, asian and other.
What is the percentage of your community organization’s target population in relation to the county’s population as a whole?
The percents are 72.3 white, Latino 15.7, black 2.5, Asian 5.6. and two or more races 3%
What are some discrepancies/differences between your engagement community and the general Marin county community in terms of privilege and access to resources?
Rotacare is a resource for people who needs health care that can’t afford it and it’s free of charge. I have heard of other clinics that have free clinics just like RotaCare for example Marin Community, Berkeley free clinic and many more. I think we have many people the community that allow programs to exist in order to help those who need it. I have seen and interfered in the world we live in there is always some type of catch that will make things worse about the service that is being provided and that discourages people from participating and seeking help.
Any findings on the history of how the discrepancies/differences came to be?
I think it’s in the community there are hard to count homes. People that are excluded from the census is just money lost. The government does not count them which causes the reduction on funds that are used for the people in that category. For example if the elderly that live in homes that are difficult to find then that is money lost for the retirement home who give them a place to live.
Is there anything in your findings that is emotionally charged, or could potentially cause resentment and/or harm in certain populations?
,,I think that we are living in that time were things in our community/ country are out of balance. Ever since our elected president the U.S has been out of control, with the unnecessary comments on people from different countries. Now our current president is trying to get rid of the support given to immigrants that want to work and study in this country. The racism has reached high levels where people change their personality when they are with people who are not their own. This has possibly not reached our community partners radar but it has had physiological effects on the everyone who has been affected or have other who have experienced such a traumatic experience.
Now What? (From Census 2020 Make Marin Count)
According to the panelists at the Make Marin Count event, what are some of the key issues related to Census 2020 in Marin County? What are some solutions offered by the panelists? How would these same issues impact the community/organization you are working with this semester? Are these issues in the community you work with that you noticed or know but were not addressed by the panelists? Please explain and try to give examples from your organization/community’s website and/or your GivePulse impacts to support.
In the 2020 census one key issue stood out for me and that is that people are not being counted for and that causes inaccurate data in the census. The people that are not being counted for are mainly the minority people since they live difficult places to find. The minority group is left out because they fear the government, lack of english proficiency and the lack of knowledge where people are not informed. Now how do people get informed? This happens through the internet or ads but the people in the panel mentioned that they went door to door informing people about the census. I think this is a step forward in getting the information out there but the problem is the response of the people, where some people won’t open the door and that is because they don’t want too even though that may be true minorities (latinos) have children in the house that wont answer the door under any circumstance. When the doors are opened then some people in the house are unaccounted for.
