Research by Skidmore students could help staff access services

(Reprinted from The Daily Gazette, July 18, 2007)

By Tatiana Zarnowski

Two Skidmore College students are doing research this summer that eventually could help backstretch workers access health care services at New York̢۪s thoroughbred racetracks, including Saratoga Race Course.

The two senior students, Shaylen Roberts and Katie Frankel, both 21, will interview 20 Mexican or Mexican-American track workers this summer about their attitudes toward traditional folk medicine and conventional medicine, what they think others think about their health care choices and what barriers keep them from getting care.

“A lot of our health beliefs are highly influenced by the people around us,†said Crystal Moore, assistant professor of sociology, anthropology and social work at Skidmore.

Roberts and Frankel are both fluent in Spanish and will offer interviewees a $15 Wal-Mart gift card for their participation.

Two professors will use the results of their interviews to come up with more questions for further study next year, Moore said. Her partner in the research project is Anissa Rogers from the University of Portland, in Oregon. The two, who are both researchers in the Hartford Faculty Scholars fellowship program, decided to collaborate on the backstretch project even though each woman also is working on an individual project for the $100,000 fellowship program.

The program is funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation of New York City.

As part of a 30-hour-a-week service-learning credit toward their social work degrees, Frankel and Roberts also enroll backstretch workers in the health care program and help out in the substance abuse clinic.

The Backstretch Employees Service Team (BEST) offers health care services and health insurance to backstretch workers at New York̢۪s three racetracks.

Moore said BEST̢۪s services are great, but, perhaps, the research will show ways to promote the services even better.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t really know what services there are,†Frankel said.

BEST President Cate Dolan agreed that it’s tough to get the message out to the workers. “One of the things that we found with this population is that while they very much need health services; it’s not one of those ‘Field of Dreams’ stories where you build it and they will come,†she said.

Moore said, in general, minorities have less access to health care and a shorter life span than whites. “I think this whole notion of health disparities is an important one.â€

The students think their visibility at the track from the rest of their service learning project will work in their favor when they recruit interviewees.

It̢۪s also the first summer that both students, who live off-campus this year, will spend in Saratoga Springs.

Researching backstretch workers at the track is ideal in a lot of ways for her students, Moore said. “It was a population in Saratoga that really needed some assistance,†she said.

“They work so much that health just becomes a back burner thing,†Roberts added.

©2007 The Daily Gazette