Profile: Glens Falls Medical Mission Foundation

The mission of Glens Falls Medical is to develop a sustained effort to work with the people of Nueva Santa Rosa, in southern Guatemala. They provide the local residents with needed health benefits, including both the medical care itself and the tools to empower them to improve their own health care.

The dates for the Fall 2009 Mission are set for October 16-24, 2009.  The group typically makes trips in both the Spring and Fall.  To find out more about the work of this group, see their website.

Through the years, the project has expanded from a purely medical one, to one that affects many aspects of life in this area. It became obvious to the group that providing only medical care is, quite literally, a band-aid approach to the extensive needs of a community.   Therefore, they are involved in many areas, including:

Medical care: As always, this is their first priority. This is done through Triage and specialty clinics. Triage is where patients are first seen, and their medical needs prioritized. Some patients with straight forward issues are screened by their nurses and EMT’s, problems are identified, and they are sent straight to the pharmacy for basic medications. Others are identified as needing care in one of the specialty clinics.

• General Medicine. This clinic cares for all adults. They see issues ranging from degenerative joint disease, hypertension and diabetes to undiagnosed cancer. 6 month recalls are provided for those with chronic hypertension or diabetes who depend on Glens Falls’ pharmacy for their medications.
• Public Health helps to monitor these individuals between clinics. This clinic needs at least 4 providers: physicians, PA’s, and NP’s.
• Women’s Care. This clinic cares for all women of child bearing age and with gyn problems. A major service is providing birth control of various types. At least 3 providers are needed, 4 is optimal. Cooperation with a Guatemalan group called the Liga Contra el Cancer has allowed them to offer pap smears and follow up services as well.
• Dentistry. Severe dental caries is rampant in this community. Glens Falls dentists may pull over 1,000 teeth during the 5 day clinic. Lack of equipment, and numbers of patients that need service, limit their ability to do any restorations or fillings. Ideally, they should have 3 dentists, which does not always happen. Fortunately, there are some Guatemalan dentists that often come to donate their time to help. Dental assistants and dental students are also welcome to help in this clinic.
• Pediatrics. They see children from birth through age 18.  The most common diagnoses they treat are parasites, diarrhea, malnutrition, poor growth, asthma, and trauma.  In addition, they see many children with genetic or congenital problems that have not been previously diagnosed.  They provide vitamins and parasite treatment for almost all the children they see.   Educating the parents on nutrition and development is an important part of improving the health of the children. They accept pediatricians, family practitioners, pediatric nurse practitioners and trained pediatric physician assistants to work in this clinic.  They also welcome students in their last months of training.

Allied Health:

• Auto refractor. Glens Falls Lions Clubs have donated an auto refractor to the mission. With training, 2 Lions Club members from Nueva Santa Rosa are able to provide glasses to about 800 people. This is a service that was sorely needed in this area, as there was is no eye doctor available at all.
• Sealant Clinic. They provide sealants on permanent molars for children 6-15. This hopefully will prevent the severe dental caries so prevalent in the area.

Pharmacy: This is one of their major expenses. They bring a fully stocked pharmacy. It is staffed by at least one pharmacist, two if possible (or a pharmacy aide), and several general volunteers. Drugs come from multiple sources including MAP International, who provides drugs at low costs to medical missions, and other not for profit sources. Some drugs are needed and are not available through these sources and need to be purchased, which tends to be quite expensive.

Education: This is, as one can imagine, a very important part of their mission. Education is offered in several areas. Patient education is provided for individual patients who need instruction about a specific health problem, for instance diabetes care. They have a great deal of literature in Spanish, heavily illustrated for those who can’t read. They have educational videos as well.

• Fire Rescue Personnel (“Bomberos”). The local fire rescue personnel help transport emergency cases from the clinic to the hospital. They are highly motivated to help, but poorly trained. For several years, Glens Falls volunteers have given them training sessions in CPR, extraction techniques, fracture immobilization, neonatal care, etc. They use their volunteers who are firemen, nurses, EMT’s, or CPR instructors to do the teaching.  In addition, firemen in their area have donated 3 completely outfitted fire trucks to the towns near Nueva Santa Rosa. EMT’s that have come on the mission drove a completely equipped ambulance to the area.
•  Lay Midwives (“Comadronas”). This group of women provide most of the prenatal care and deliveries in the area. Glens Falls try to improve their knowledge and management of many conditions that they may encounter among pregnant women and newborns. They also try to provide them with basic tools to ensure safe deliveries: BP cuffs, an infant scale, etc.  Their main educators and their Women’s clinic personnel do the teaching.
• Public Health Doctors & Nurses. Classes are held for Public Health doctors and nurses, teaching neonatal resuscitation, shock stabilization, and other first aid techniques to enable the local population to help themselves.
• Health Promoters. Health Promoters attend classes on treating diarrhea, recognizing dehydration in children and some first aid.
• Other. A Glens Falls educator is also in charge of arranging referrals to other hospitals or missions for those whom they cannot help in the clinic. They coordinate with Guatemalan physicians and hospitals whenever possible. They are hoping in future missions to coordinate with a Guatemalan group that works in prevention of domestic violence.
• Assessing Needs. In order to know where they can make the most impact, they need to understand the local problems. Students from the New Visions in Public Health program in Albany have done surveys of nutritional needs and nutritional inadequacy of the local diets. Soon, they will start a survey of the understanding of the local people about parasites and how to avoid them. Using this information, they hope to be able to better target their teaching programs in this area.

Coordination and Cooperation with Other Groups: Glens Falls cannot serve all of the area’s needs alone. They have the good fortune to be able to cooperate with other Guatemalan and international groups to help extend their care. These include:

• Incaparina: This not for profit group is dedicated to improving the nutritional status of families. With the lack of nutrition education among the populace, the dire poverty, and unemployment, children especially suffer from frank malnutrition. This group sells a very cheap nutritional drink, and makes a soy protein product to improve protein intake in an affordable way. They come to each of their clinics to teach principles of good nutrition to the families there.
• Liga Contra el Cancer: Their newest association is with this group, who provides a mobile pap smear clinic for women. They are able to follow up on abnormal smears, and provide surgery if necessary. The cost to the mission is about $1500 each clinic. They are very excited about being able to offer this preventive service, as their women’s clinic has seen cases of frank cervical cancer which were too far advanced to treat.
• Lions Club: As mentioned, this group has worked with us since they first started. The Guatemalan club arranges their ground transportation, gets their items through customs, stores supplies, and identifies patients for the clinics. In turn, Glens Falls is helping them establish a dental and eye clinic and library in Cuilapa.
• Cristo Rey Church: This is the location of their clinic, in the church school classrooms. The padre has been very helpful in allowing us to hold their clinic there for a small donation. They help him serve his parishioners, and have donated books in Spanish to the church school.
• Cuilapa Hospital: Located about 40 minutes by bus from the town, this is the only public hospital in the area. They accept acute cases from their clinic. In return, Glens Falls provide medical seminars, and medical supplies and drugs when they are available.
• Guatemalan Volunteers: In the years that they have been going to the area, many local people have become their friends, and volunteer at every clinic. Some are translators as well. Native Guatemalans who are doctors or dentists, pharmacists and nurses work with us. American and British citizens who live in Guatemala City come to act as translators. The deep friendships that they have established with these people are one of the main reasons that so many of us keep going back year after year.