January 27, 2022

During a time of school closures, online learning, and increasing screen time, it is more important than ever to prioritize children literacy rates and the importance of books, by giving children and their parents the tools they need.

TVHC, in partnership with Hayward Promise Neighborhood, 4Cs of Alameda County, and the Hayward Public Library, hosted a mobile library on Tuesday, January 4^th at the TVHC Firehouse Clinic.

TVHC is working with the mobile library Curbie, to push literacy in the community and aims to get children signed up for library cards and provide them with free books to read while also educating through interactive games and quizzes — teaching them the importance of vaccines, personal hygiene, and maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle.

The Curbie program is a part of a larger effort by TVHC to push for increased community education and literacy. Through the Promotores with Curbie, families are provided information about the clinic including COVID vaccines for kids and parents, helping new patients sign up for health insurance through Covered CA, capturing eligibility for Family Support Services, and referring unsheltered families to housing resources.

“We need to vaccinate children five and older now, so when kids come here to play the game setup, we try to teach them about the vaccine,” says Carolina Arroyo Solveson, Community Empowerment Liaison. “We try to teach them, in a fun and interactive way that helps them understand why the vaccine is important.”

Carolina says that through educating children on the vaccine, she hopes to not make them afraid of it and instead familiarize themselves with it.

“This is a great thing to have,” says Carolina. “We are able to screen families for services while giving kids the opportunity to get books while they are here, so they don’t have to go to the library, which is usually very far away.”

The Curbie mobile library will make several stops throughout Hayward in 2022 and will continue to work with TVHC at our Firehouse and Silva clinics.

October 28, 2021

This year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month coincides with Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center (TVHC) making great strides towards increasing the screening rate among women in communities who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

Despite the pandemic bringing on a dramatically low breast cancer screening rate, both locally and nationwide,  TVHC has steadily increased its screening rate over the past year  to 40 percent, with the goal of reaching an 80 percent screening rate in the near future.

“With mammograms, we’ve been talking to women and encouraging them to get it,” says Suzanne Seger, Assistant Director to OBGYN. “Particularly after they get vaccinated, that’s why with phone consults or in-person consults, it’s been easy to keep our eye on that issue.”

TVHC has been proactive in referring women to get screened — with the Adult Medicine and Women’s Health providers helping cultivate trust within women in the community, reaching out for follow-ups and referrals, and stressing the importance of not missing the screening.  

TVHC is also seeking to further streamline the process of ensuring patients’ on-time checkups through developing a specialized dashboard to be implemented through the Well app, where patients can find out what healthcare items they’re due for — centralizing the process and automating patients’ data. 

In early 2022, TVHC also has plans to bring back the Mammo Van. This mobile mammography exam room had previously screened over 250 women in 2019 but was unfortunately temporarily halted due to the pandemic. 

The Mammo Van provides much faster service to patients, taking only 10-15 minutes compared to a stand-alone appointment which takes up to an hour. It also helps those without transportation get screened without having to leave their neighborhood.

TVHC is expecting to further increase screening rates in 2022 with the implementation of its; Every Woman Counts site, made possible by a statewide fund that covers cervical and breast cancer screenings for patients at no cost.

“TVHC is about healthcare access and equity,” says Seger. “We know that women in our own community are more likely to have a worse outcome from breast cancer and anything that we can do as providers to spotlight and encourage women to get mammograms is going to help with access and equity.”  

Stay tuned for more updates on TVHC’s efforts to increase Breast Cancer Screening.

August 25, 2021

As students began making their way back into the classroom this month, TVHC is increasing access to COVID vaccines to parents and students.

On Thursday, August 19th, TVHC hosted a pop-up COVID vaccine clinic at the San Lorenzo Unified School District office with extended hours from 2:30 pm to 7:00 pm, making it easier for community members to get vaccinated after work.

This event is part of a much larger strategy of getting COVID vaccination clinics in schools. Since June, TVHC has been hosting pop-up clinics at Cesar Chavez Middle School, James Logan High School, and Chabot College, helping to  increase access to the vaccine at a time when it is most needed. 

Back in 2020, classrooms went virtual, campuses were closed, and students missed out on activities with their fellow classmates, including school sports. With the COVID vaccines, this year, most schools have fully re-opened with in-person learning helping students get a bit of normalcy back into their lives and TVHC is doing its part to help keep students safe with its on campus COVID vaccination clinics.

Back in July, the TVHC vaccination clinic at Chabot College was able to fully vaccinate the school’s football team just in time to start the 2020- 2021 season. TVHC has been hosting the COVID vaccination clinic at Chabot College since June of this year and will continue to host the clinic every week on Mondays and Tuesdays, where students can get vaccinated in between classes for free.

TVHC has two other  on campus pop-up vaccination clinics planned for September  15th at James Logan High School and September 22nd at Ltliong-Vera Cruz Middle School in Union City. Both of these clinics will be open to the public.

Stay tuned for more TVHC updates.