Army, A&M join to take health care to colonias
Army Reserve, Texas A&M begin partnership that provides services to impoverished areas
The Army Reserve is partnering with students from the Texas A&M system to provide health care and infrastructure projects to thousands of people living in impoverished areas known as colonias.
EL CENIZO — Jennifer Meadows twisted the knobs on a phoropter, zeroing in on Irma Sanchez’s ideal glasses prescription. A few more twists and turns of the knobs, and Meadows, an optometrist and major in the Army Reserve, had it pegged.
“She’s nearsighted,” Meadows said of her patient.
Despite worsening vision, Sanchez, 38, hadn’t visited an optometrist in a decade. For that matter, years had passed since she last sat in a dentist’s chair or set foot in a doctor’s office.
“I needed new glasses,” Sanchez said. “This is great.”
Sanchez, who doesn’t have health insurance, is not alone.
Over a two-week period in late June, the Reserve partnered with students from across the Texas A&M System to provide health care and infrastructure projects to thousands of people living in impoverished neighborhoods around Laredo known as colonias.
The mission, under the Innovative Readiness Training program, builds partnerships between the Defense Department and underserved U.S. communities. For the Army, it is a valuable opportunity to prepare its reservists for overseas deployment in underdeveloped regions.
For Texas A&M’s Colonias Program, the Army’s need to train was its chance to bring much-needed services to the neighborhoods.
“I know for sure that this exer-
cise has already saved one life,” said Oscar Muñoz, director of the colonias program. A physician detected a heart murmur in one resident and sent him to an area clinic for further examination. “It might not have had a happy ending if he hadn’t been treated here.”
Along the Texas-Mexico border, there are nearly 2,300 colonias, where an estimated 500,000 residents, about half of them younger than 18, live without one or more major infrastructure basics, such as potable water, paved roads, sewage system, storm drainage and electricity.
The colonias program, founded in 1991 by the Legislature, is designed to help colonia residents develop sustainable solutions to their infrastructure needs.
Program reaches Texas
About two years ago, during a quarterly meeting in San Antonio with other university departments, Muñoz crossed paths with Olin Findley Brewster, an Army Reserve ambassador with A&M. Brewster asked if Muñoz had ever considered the IRT program.
“I told (Muñoz) ‘Hell, I think I can help,’ ” Brewster said. “He’d never heard of the program.”
The Army’s program had never come to Texas. Over the next 18 months the two programs got to work, marrying needs and services.
The Army deployed 122 health care professionals to four colonias, two civil service units to survey economic and development opportunities in seven colonias, and an engineering unit to resurface 2 miles of unpaved road.
For its part, the A&M System brought dozens of nursing students from Corpus Christi and Round Rock to work alongside the reservists.
At the Larga Vista Community Center in Laredo, the line of patients began forming early in the morning. The site averaged 162 patients each day.
“Most of the men say they’ve never seen a doctor,” said Sgt. Cristine Martinez, a nurse in charge of the Larga Vista site. Most of the patients came for vision and dental care.
One older man put on glasses for the first time and “burst into tears,” Martinez said.
Public service, training
According to the 7458th Medical Backfill Battalion, the reservists from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, performed 963 medical exams, 889 dental exams and 1,184 optical exams. Capt. Daniel Wong, a physician, noted the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension among his patients. In some areas along the border, 50 percent of adults are obese, and the rate of diabetes is as high as 30 percent among adults in some communities.
“Unfortunately, I had to scare some of them half to death,” Wong said.
After the residents had their medical checkups, Wong sent them to collect a month’s supply of medicine, then on to the Gateway Community Health Center, which receives funding from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.
“From a military perspective, we’re here primarily to train our troops and prepare for their combat missions,” said Lt. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan of Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston. “Usually, we spend time around the world helping others, but we get an extra benefit here of helping Americans.”
“This is what public service is all about,” said A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp, who visited the sites around Laredo with Buchanan this week. “We’re able to step in for a brief while and change a bunch of lives, and maybe save a bunch of lives.”
Muñoz has submitted applications for nine projects under the Army’s program. Four have been approved: a medical mission to El Paso, a civil affairs mission to Laredo, and medical and engineering missions to Brownsville.
“We were not only able to provide medical services, we’re also now ensuring that there is sustainability,” Muñoz said. “I’m looking forward to next year’s exercises.”