History of the AffiliateBegun by two local ob gyns in 1966, Planned Parenthood of Brownsville (as it was then known) started life in a barracks behind the old Fort Brown within sight of the bridge to Mexico and the Rio Grande. At that time, there were no free or low cost services available for birth control in Brownsville. These two doctors routinely saw women in the emergency room for delivery who had had no prenatal care and who had not planned on this sixth, seventh or twelfth baby. They stated, however, that they could not afford to go to the private doctors’ offices and could not afford to purchase contraceptives. The original clinic was staffed exclusively by volunteers, working mostly at night after a full day of seeing their private patients. It didn’t take long for word to get out that these services were available and it didn’t take much longer for it to become apparent to the doctors that it was impossible to run such a service without funding from somewhere. They turned to the OEO (Office of Economic Opportunity) for funding under the “War on Poverty” initiatives. By the time this funding stream was available, the doctors and volunteers had already decided that they needed more structure as well and turned to PPFA for affiliation. A variety of sources of funding have made medical services available ever since. Meanwhile, volunteers in the northern Cameron County towns of San Benito and Harlingen and in the Willacy County town of Raymondville, gradually asked for help with getting a similar program started in their communities; the decision was made to run the clinics through one central administrative office in Brownsville. Larger quarters were sought in Brownsville in 1970 and again in 1978. In the early ’80’s, the Board decided that the facilities out of which we were providing excellent care were rather in-excellent. Professional quarters were unavailable for lease in San Benito and the affiliate built a 1600 square foot building in 1984; the following year, we built a 4200 square foot building in Brownsville to house our main clinic, Education Department and Administration. In 1987, the Harlingen clinic was moved to expanded and more professional quarters; in 1989, we were able to move the Raymondville clinic to a warm and pleasant building, replacing the depressing quarters we had occupied. 1990 saw the opening of a fifth (part time) site on Southmost Road in Brownsville. The Southmost section of Brownsville is one of the most densely populated census tracts of the State, containing more than 24,000 people in an area about one mile square. In 1995, we moved the Southmost clinic to a more professional, full-time facility. Renovation of the main clinic building in Brownsville was planned for 1997, to enhance security, improve patient flow, allow for expanded patient service areas and expand the Education Department. To make room for this, the Administrative offices were moved to Harlingen, a more central location for our clinics. In the Summer of 1998, we renovated the Harlingen clinic’s reception area to improve patient privacy and to enhance security. When we first began, services were limited to birth control. Today, we provide complete well-woman exams and are the main source of health care for most of our patients. Given the poverty of the area and the inaccessibility to other health care services for poor women, we have always focused much attention on cancer screening. Cervical screening is, of course, done in all our clinics and Colposcopy and Cryotherapy services have been available at our San Benito facility since 1995. Breast exams are also, of course, done in all sites; through a grant from the Texas Department of Health, which we have networked to other local providers, we sponsor the Promesa Salud Program, referring patients for free screening mammograms and providing case management services to assure that abnormal results are followed up in a timely manner. We also provide case management services for pregnant and parenting teens through our Positive Directions program. Two licensed social workers work with the girls, their babies, their families and their schools to keep the teen parent in school, help her learn to be the best parent she can be and remain non-pregnant for the balance of her adolescence. Mid-life services were initiated in 1996 and are available in all our sites; male services for testing and treatment of STD’s were initiated in 1999. Our Education Department works with a variety of groups that serve high risk teens, as well as with a number of local school districts. The rush to provide “abstinence only” sexuality education- during the late 1990’s has created a challenge for the department and has changed the focus of our activities. At one time, we spent a great deal of time in the classroom, providing sessions from puberty to birth control, to talking to your parents about sex, to students from the 4th grade through high school. We still spend some time in local public schools, but more of our time is spent with high risk groups and on advising school districts on curricular choices. By State law, each school district must establish a Health Advisory Council to advise the district on, among other things, the content and age levels of sexuality education in the district. PP staff members serve on three of these councils. Classes in parenting are conducted in either English or Spanish. We actively participate in public affairs at the state, national and local level. We are members of the Texas Family Planning Association, the state-wide lobbying entity for all family planning providers. We are in close touch with state legislators and have excellent working relationships with them. We are also in touch with our federal representative and senators although it is apparent that we don’t have nearly as good a working relationship with Sen. Gramm, Sen. Huctchinson and Rep. Ortiz as we do with our delegation to the Texas House and Senate. We have an ALERT! system to notify supporters by mail about upcoming issues; we have initiated an e-mail ALERT! system to make this more efficient. The major local issue of importance continues to be sexuality education. Local media rely on us to provide not only ‘quotes’ but also statistics, other printed information, additional sources of information and ideas for new stories. We monitor school board elections, sending questionnaires to candidates in contested races that elicit their views on health and sexuality education. We have a committed group of Board members, including business people, teachers, nurses, counselors, attorneys and interested community volunteers. |
