Canyonlands Community Health Care, which has clinics in Safford and Duncan, is joining health centers across the United States to celebrate National Health Center Week.

The celebration will include Farm Worker Health Day on Thursday and free blood pressure checks, blood glucose screenings, body mass index measurements and preventative health education Friday from noon to 5 p.m. at the Safford clinic, 618 S. Central Ave.

National Health Center Week runs from Aug. 10 through Aug. 16. This year’s theme is “America’s Health Centers: Home of America’s Health Care Heroes.”

The staff of the Canyonlands clinic in Safford is ready to celebrate National Health Center Week. From left are Director Jeff Vaughn, Dr. Randi Germaine, nurse practitioner John Ekman, receptionist Olga Lopez, medical records clerk Gloria Borunda, nursing assistant Eileen Bejarano, patient services representative Beverly Finman and medical assistant Tina Garcia. Not pictured is nurse practitioner Jo-Ann Draper. Photo by Diane Saunders

The second week of August each year is dedicated to recognizing the service and contributions of community, migrant, homeless and public housing health centers in providing access to affordable, high-quality health care to medically vulnerable and underserved people in the United States, including those in rural Arizona.

“Canyonlands Community Health Care is a proud supporter of National Health Center Week 2008 and the ‘ACCESS for All America plan,’” said Jeff Vaughn, site director for Canyonlands clinics in southeastern Arizona.

The National Association of Community Health Centers unveiled its ACCESS for All America plan March 12. The initiative seeks to boost funding levels for community health centers by billions of dollars over the next seven years. The plan calls for an increase in federal funding from about $2 billion in 2008 to $5 billion in 2015, according to News Now, a publication of the American Association of Family Physicians.

Thousands of residents of Graham and Greenlee counties visit the local clinics for health care, Vaughn said. The Safford clinic saw 4,923 patients from Aug. 5, 2007, through Aug. 5, 2008, and the Duncan clinic saw 4,380 patients within the same time frame.

“We offer a variety of services here — most of them being related to primary and preventative care,” Vaughn said in a written response to questions from the Courier. “Most of what we see are family medicine visits, such as coughs and colds, along with women’s and children’s health visits, some occupational medicine exams, industrial accident follow-up visits and long-term care of chronic conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, etc.”

He said farm work is identified by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as one of the top 10 most dangerous occupations in America. These workers often lack private health insurance; face numerous difficulties enrolling in state-based health insurance programs, such as Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, known as AHCCCS, and are too poor to afford paying for health care out-of-pocket.

Community health centers play an important role in providing medical care to farm workers.

For more information about Canyonlands call the Safford clinic at 928-428-1500 or the Duncan clinic at 928-359-1380. The Safford clinic is at 618 S. Central Ave., and the Duncan clinic is at 227 Main St.