La Clinica becomes California Transplant Donor Network’s latest Health Partner

SOURCE: CTDN

California Transplant Donor Network's Health Partners Saving Lives campaign is now a part of the education efforts at La Clinica dela Raza, serving more than 60,000 multi-cultural patients in three Bay Area counties.

Health Partners is part of CTDN effort urging people to save lives through organ, eye and tissue donation by placing informational material in those clinics.

La Clinica's network of health-care providers is spread over 26 sites and includes services such as urgent care, primary care, school-based clinics and education centers in Solano, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Each clinic serves a different mix of patients, but its overall clientele is 69% Latino, 14 % white, 9 % African American and 6 % Asian.

"The people who tend to come by and want to put material up are for profit and we don't allow that. So when there is a non- profit cause, something what we believe in and is important to us, it is much easier to say okay. It's been quite easy because the visuals for Health Partners are so nice and available in English and Spanish," said Anna Dorman, Clinic Health Education Manager.

The package of materials includes posters, brochures and brochure stands. At La Clinica’s Transit Village in Fruitvale, patients can pick up Spanish language and English materials on organ and tissue donation. Health Partners also has materials in Chinese as well.

Providing information in several languages fits with CTND's effort to specifically reach out to minority communities with the message that organ donation saves lives. Need crosses over all ethnic and racial lines. There are currently more than 110,000 people on the organ donor waiting list nationally.

But among certain groups the need is more pronounced. For example, Latinos make up more than a third of those waiting for life-saving organs.

California residents can sign to be an organ, eye and tissue donor renewing or getting their drivers' license for the first time or obtaining an ID card. They can also sign up on line at www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org or its companion Spanish Web site, ww.doneVIDAcalifornia.org.

California Donor Transplant Network, which serves Northern California and Northern Nevada, says the campaign is a natural given that people feel comfortable talking about organ and tissue donation from a trusted health professional in a health care setting.

CALIFORNIANS, TO REGISTER TO BE AN ORGAN, EYE AND TISSUE DONOR PLEASE CLICK HERE AND BE A PART OF THE DONATE LIFE ORGAN DONATION BLOG REGISTRATION DRIVE.