Brooklyn Park’s ‘Health On The Go’ Brings Essential Services To Underserved Residents
A blue mobile building sat in the parking lot of Brooklyn Park’s public works facility Friday morning, seemingly waiting to be deployed to its next assignment. The woman who does the deploying, Carmen Bibiano, talked excitedly about the new generator the city bought to help her power the Health on the Go trailer.
“In this trailer, I’ve had dental clinics, mammograms, wellness checkups,” she said. “Everything is free.”
Bibiano works as a community health engagement specialist for the city. When she started in January 2022, the trailer was still new and had been created specifically to help deliver COVID vaccinations to underserved and immigrant communities in the city’s apartment complexes. Even with incentives, the vaccines were not always popular, for a variety of reasons, she said.
“I started asking, ‘You don’t want the COVID vaccine? That’s fine. What else do you want me to bring you?'” said Bibiano. “I know there are other organizations I can bring you, other resources.”
Brooklyn Park’s Health on the Go program takes this trailer around to different underserved communities each month to offer health screenings and other essential services.
Since then, Bibiano and the city partnered with other local, county and state organizations to provide everything from legal aid, housing assistance and food distribution at monthly stops at apartment complexes including Huntington Place and Eden Park.
“Residents ask, like ‘When are you coming next month?'” she said. “I cannot solve all of the problems, but I can guarantee those programs and services are going to be free for them. That’s my job. To provide free services.”
The three-room mobile clinic offers privacy for health screenings, vaccinations or consultations.
“A lot of them live in very difficult situations, like domestic violence, and sexual assault. A lot of them don’t have a job,” said Bibiano. “When the Health on the Go comes, it’s like a lot of resources are going to be there for them.”
