This last summer, I spent my time participating in the city of Temecula’s Future Physician Leaders Program (FPL). Future Physician Leaders is a program operating in partnership with the University of California Riverside School of Medicine and Temecula Valley Hospital. FPL is a program dedicated to educating the college and high school students of Riverside County who aspire to enter the medical field. A component of this program includes a Community Health Project (CHP); the students divide into teams and attack a meaningful issue that which we can help resolve or positively impact change in our community. My team agreed that access to healthcare was a major issue. Throughout all of Riverside County there are individuals who possess issues with their insurance, …show more content…
Here, “Team Access” conducted a preliminary survey in order to determine the healthcare related needs of the people attending the church’s weekly food pantries. Afterward, it is at this site that we were able to establish a long-term connection between the United Methodist Church in Murrieta and the Health to Hope mobile clinics. Health to Hope mobile clinics is a system of mobile healthcare providers giving aid to the homeless population within Riverside County. The Health to Hope mobile clinics are able to bring health services, medications, and material goods to the people, eliminating the predicament of transportation to and from far away clinics. Finally, at the concluding Future Physician Leaders Reception at the UCR Palm Desert campus, my teammates and I presented our project to Congressman Raul Ruiz - the founder of the program - in hopes of persuading him to enact change within our community. We were able to show him how access, not just affordability of healthcare, is an increasing predicament within Riverside Community. It was through this effort that my team hopes to help both the low-income and homeless members of our community and achieve more adequate access to healthcare in Riverside