SALEM — Fifteen years ago, a group of about 20 Oregon winemakers throughout the state decided to put their heads together to solve a problem affecting all of them.
The seasonal workers they relied on to prune their vineyards and harvest their grapes were routinely coming down with acute cases of emphysema, gall stones, wound infections, serious tooth disease and a wide range of other medical problems.
"People were getting extremely sick, allowing whatever condition they had to get severe and then ending up in the emergency room," said Ken Wright, owner and winemaker for Ken Wright Cellars in Carlton. "Clearly, their cases could have been dealt with earlier when they were relatively minor." Unlike their regular, year-round employees, wineries have no way to provide their largely Hispanic seasonal laborers with health insurance because they typically work in the fields for only a few months at a time. Immigration issues, language barriers, financial difficulties and the fear of losing work often cause these workers to postpone seeking medical attention until it's absolutely unavoidable.
"These folks fall through the cracks," Wright said.
In response to this problem, the group of winemakers helped form Salud, a program of the Tuality Healthcare Foundation nonprofit organization, aimed at providing health care service to seasonal workers. To raise money for the operation, Ken Wright and the other winemakers did what came naturally to them: create top-notch blends of Pinot noir. Because rare wines command higher prices at auction, every winery agreed to make wine exclusively for Salud's yearly fundraising event.
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At the first auction, the original 20 wineries that developed Salud raked in about $125,000, which was considered a big accomplishment. Since then, the group's membership has grown along with its revenues. In 2006, 42 wineries raised more than $750,000.
Although their fundraising method was a success from the get-go, the winemakers weren't completely satisfied with their method of providing medical services. Initially, the money was granted to clinics in return for reduced health care rates for the seasonal workers.
This was deemed insufficient for two reasons. First of all, Salud had no influence on how the money was spent — its goal was to directly help laborers, not pay for overhead costs. Secondly, the system did nothing to reach out to workers who were unaware of the program or too timid to go out of their way for assistance.
"We weren't getting the message out to the fields," said Wright.
The first step in correcting this was to hire a nurse to oversee the new hands-on operation. Leda Garside, the woman hired by Salud as a clinical nurse manager, quickly became an integral part of the program.
"Leda is the heart and soul of the mission," Wright said.
Garside started her job by figuring out who the potential clients were and how to get in contact with them. By calling different vineyards and educating the owners and managers about Salud, she was able to meet workers and learn what their needs were. Next, Garside began contacting community and private health care providers to establish relationships and to get a sense of who would be able to help.
"That was the biggest challenge, to know the lay of the land," she said. "It built up from there, kind of by word of mouth."
In 2006, Garside coordinated medical, dental and vision services for about 4,000 people, according to Wright. Instead of counting on the workers to pursue care on their own, she brings the medical attention to their workplace: the vineyards.
Vans from Northwest Medical Teams provide dental exams, vans from Pacific University's optometry program offer vision exams, and the Portland Adventist's "clinic on wheels" — a converted recreational vehicle — works as a mobile doctor's office.
"We travel the whole (Willamette) Valley," she said.
Aside from onsite treatment for such relatively minor problems as poison oak rashes, sore throats and ear infections, Garside's medical caravan also conducts preventive exams to check for ailments such as high cholesterol or diabetes.
In cases where more serious help is required, Salud collaborates with service providers to help patients navigate the medical system and the group even assists with expenses.
From broken arms to open-heart surgery, "we will try to facilitate as much as we can," Garside said.
Salud has received such an overwhelming response from the seasonal worker community that the program's main challenge now is keeping up with the demand.
So far this year Salud has identified 100 new people in need of health care, which suggests that the program will see a continued and steady increase in demand for services
The initial problem was persuading workers to overcome their reluctance to seek medical help, and by that measure the program has met with enormous success, said Wright.
"Over the years ... trust has been earned," he said. "Our onus now is to raise the funds to meet that need."
On the Net: Salud Web site: http:www.saludauction.org/; Northwest Medical Teams: http:www.nwmedicalteams.org/site/PageServer
