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Needs Rise As Economy Sinks

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By LAURA FRAZIER lfrazier@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 24, 2008

BRANDON - More families than ever are coming to the Brandon Family Support and Resource Center asking for help to find employment and financial aid.

"The last two months have been crazy," said Evelyn Toledo, a family resource specialist. "We're seeing a lot more people who are applying for food stamps for the first time in their lives."

Many moms who come to the center tell Toledo they can no longer afford to stay at home full time with their children.

"They say they have to go back to work, so we help them update their resume," Toledo said. Free one-on-one career counseling and computer classes offered at the center are filling up fast.

Health coverage - or the lack thereof - is another growing concern for Brandon area families.

Kerri-Rose Gomez, a child advocacy specialist with St. Joseph's Child Advocacy Center, manned the hospital's Mobile Medical Clinic on Dec. 13 at the family center. Hospital staff and volunteers travel once a month to family centers in Brandon, Town 'N Country, North Tampa and Ruskin and make more frequent visits to Good Samaritan Mission in Wimauma and San Jose Mission in Dover.

They offer checkups and immunizations for children whose parents are underinsured or have no insurance.

Gomez said demand for the mobile program has grown, but funding - achieved primarily through a grant from the Children's Board of Hillsborough County - limits the number of patients they can see each month.

She said increasing numbers of parents who do have health coverage are turning to the program for help.

"A lot of them have insurance, but it doesn't cover immunizations," she said.

Even more disturbing, Gomez said, is a recent increase in parents who have insurance but need help because they cannot afford to pay their co-payment.

"That's something we've never seen before," she said.

Pediatrician Peter Gorski volunteers his services with the mobile clinic. He is surprised at the number of children in the community who do not have some kind of health insurance.

It's a cold fact, he said, that as people continue to lose jobs, they will continue to lose their health insurance coverage.

"It's very important to give them access to affordable health care," Gorski said.

For information about the Mobile Medical Clinic, call the Brandon Family Support and Resource Center, (813) 740-4634.

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