Every Monday morning the Salud Para La Gente medical mobile vehicle pulls into a parking lot off Pajaro’s main drag. The vehicle looks like an RV from the outside, but inside it’s stocked with equipment and supplies to provide primary, preventive, and acute medical care to a community that’s still recovering from a devasting flood.
In March 2023, a levee failed on the Pajaro River, flooding hundreds of homes and businesses in Pajaro, and forcing some 3,000 residents to evacuate. It was an especially harsh blow to this North Monterey County community, home to many farmworkers and their families.
Kaiser Permanente recently awarded a $300,000 grant to Salud Para La Gente to expand medical, dental, social, and behavioral health services to low-income residents. The nonprofit health care organization operates 9 clinics in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.
Salud’s CEO, Donna Young, said the grant is supporting the mobile vehicle in Pajaro and the reopening of a school-based health center at Pajaro Middle School. Both the school and the health center were damaged by the flooding.
“We’ll be able to offer services to more children and their families when the school-based health center renovations are completed in 6 months,” Young said. “The funding will enable us to support and serve our Pajaro community.”
Grant supports training, technical assistance, and more
Kaiser Permanente supports community health centers like Salud Para La Gente as part of its commitment to increase access to health care for people with low incomes and improve overall health in the community. One in 5 Californians receives their health care through a community health center.
“We know that access to high-quality, affordable, and culturally relevant care is essential for good health,” said Yvette Radford, vice president for External and Community Affairs, Kaiser Permanente Northern California. “We’re proud of our long-standing support for community health centers, which provide equitable access to primary, specialty, dental, and mental health care regardless of an individuals’ ability to pay.”
So far this year, Kaiser Permanente Northern California has provided grant funding to 42 community health centers, primary care associations, and community organizations that serve people with low incomes. Collectively, these organizations are known as the health care safety net.
Besides supporting patient care, Kaiser Permanente grants fund training and technical assistance to help safety net providers improve health care quality, grow their workforce, and expand services. Other grants help them enroll eligible patients into Medi-Cal or other subsidized coverage including Kaiser Permanente’s Community Health Care Program.
Making a difference in patients’ lives
In addition to Salud Para La Gente, this year Kaiser Permanente provided grants to the Pajaro Valley Health Care District and Santa Cruz Community Health to expand medical, dental, social, and behavioral health services for the community. The support is part of nearly $2.8 million in grants provided by Kaiser Permanente this year to improve health along the Central Coast.
For its part, Salud Para La Gente served more than 27,000 patients last year, and its providers screened more than half of them for social needs, asking about food, housing, transportation, safety, and behavioral health needs. Salud also distributes food and diapers.
Physician Assistant Leticia Salazar, who staffs the medical mobile vehicle in Pajaro on Mondays, said needs have been high, especially since the pandemic and last year’s flood.
“We address the conditions that we can, and we connect our patients to resources in the community,” Salazar said. “It’s gratifying to know we can make even a small difference in our patients’ lives.”
