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B.E.S.T. awarded $350,000 grant

Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.) of New York Inc. The Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Division of the New York State Department of Health has awarded the Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.) a $350,000 grant ($70,000 each year for five years) to be used to improve and supplement B.E.S.T.'s healthcare programs and delivery of services. B.E.S.T. is the only new agency receiving a grant this year from the Division, and it is B.E.S.T.'s first award from a New York State agency. As the health and human services agency for backstretch workers, B.E.S.T. welcomes this opportunity to further meet the needs of the people who are devoted to caring for New York racing's Thoroughbreds. For the past three years, B.E.S.T., an independent non-profit organization, has operated a year-round clinic at Belmont and six-month seasonal clinic at Saratoga. B.E.S.T.'s clinics provide primary, preventive and urgent health care services, delivered by bilingual medical professionals and free of charge to all those who work with the horses. Because the clinics are part-time, care is supplemented by a 24/7 medical hotline. The NYS Department of Health grant will allow for the expansion of hours and services at both clinics, which treat as many as 20 patients during each four-hour day. In addition, the grant will fund two Community Health Workers, who do outreach to workers in the backstretches at Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga. These bilingual staff members are key to the promotion, integration and follow up that underlie successful delivery of B.E.S.T.'s social service and healthcare programs.

In other B.E.S.T. news, New York's first on-site dental program for barn area workers will be launched on Sunday in its medical clinic on the Saratoga backstretch. The dental program is supported by grants from the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust and New York State's Department of Health -- Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers Division. Some dental services in Saratoga will be funded by the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

These grants make it possible for B.E.S.T. to expand services in its existing medical clinic to offer cleanings and checkups by professional, bilingual dental staff. Appointments with local dentists for more extensive surgical treatments will also be scheduled through the clinic. Recording dental treatments in workers' health files will tie together the healthcare services each person receives through B.E.S.T.'s comprehensive health programs.

The Solomon Dental Clinic launches on the same day as B.E.S.T.'s newest project, the  Global Communication Center. The Center provides a supervised site where computers and wireless Internet services, including Skype video capability, are available free of charge to workers. From a newly refinished and air-conditioned space, workers can communicate with colleagues, friends and families in other locations, including internationally.

B.E.S.T.'s staff of health professionals has found that loneliness and isolation contribute to alcohol and substance abuse in the backstretch, as well as to other illnesses, most notably hypertension. Making available to backstretch workers additional channels of communication will help alleviate some less constructive behaviors and ill-health. This objective is supported by B.E.S.T.'s bilingual counseling staff, as well as by bilingual medical staff in B.E.S.T.'s backstretch clinic.

The Fasig-Tipton Company has awarded $10,000 to B.E.S.T. to support the services provided in Saratoga's Global Communication Center. That grant has been supplemented by donations from West Point Thoroughbreds and Marchfore Thoroughbred Enterprises, with the goal to set up a similar center at Belmont Park, where AXA Financial Inc. is contributing computers.

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