Importance of Preventative Care as seen in Latino Communities
As a Spanish minor at the University of South Carolina, I have had the opportunity to learn about the Latino community that resides in South Carolina. Due to this I have been able to witness the inequity of healthcare in the United States specifically within the Latino Community. Growing up in a small town with a middle-class family I had never taken the time to reflect on healthcare and how valuable it truly is-especially preventative care. Now, as a Public Health major and Spanish and Psychology minors, I have been able to reflect on the value yet unequal aspects of healthcare in the United States.
Outside of the classroom, I have been very involved within Columbia and in my hometown of Beaufort. I am a volunteer interpreter at the Good Samaritan Clinic in Columbia. I volunteered my sophomore year twice a week with PASOs and have continued to participate in Ferias de Salud or health fairs sponsored by PASOs. I work seasonally at Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton Comprehensive Health Services as an interpreter for seasonal migrant workers that pass through Beaufort, South Carolina. Below is a Beyond-the-Classroom Artifact in which I am posing with fellow employees and a few migrant workers that were at our clinic for medical care that evening.
Outside of the classroom, I have been very involved within Columbia and in my hometown of Beaufort. I am a volunteer interpreter at the Good Samaritan Clinic in Columbia. I volunteered my sophomore year twice a week with PASOs and have continued to participate in Ferias de Salud or health fairs sponsored by PASOs. I work seasonally at Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton Comprehensive Health Services as an interpreter for seasonal migrant workers that pass through Beaufort, South Carolina. Below is a Beyond-the-Classroom Artifact in which I am posing with fellow employees and a few migrant workers that were at our clinic for medical care that evening.
BTC Artifact- Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton Comprehensive Health Services Migrant Night Clinic. Staff (interpreters and office staff) and migrant farmworkers pose outside of the St. Helena clinic with the phrase "We are Migrant" to convey the importance of our farmworkers. (I am in the yellow shirt.)
As I worked in the clinics, I was constantly learning about the Latino culture and the lack of access they have to healthcare due to barriers including language, lack of health insurance, acculturation and more. In Spanish for Healthcare Professionals (Spanish 360) we discussed the barriers that I witnessed which typically accompany a Hispanic patient in the United States Health Care System. As I was in class, I was constantly connecting these concepts to real-life events I had witnessed myself in the clinics.
Many first-generation Hispanics come to the United States with hopes of the American Dream but often face challenges linguistically, financially, and culturally. These challenges later are reflected in terms of medical problems and chronic disease due to lack of preventative care and high amounts of stress. First-generation Hispanics often join Hispanic churches and speak Spanish among themselves. As they have children who enroll in school and learn English, their children become their interpreters and even interpret for medical check-ups and appointments.
In regards to culture and healthcare, it is common that first-generation Hispanics use home remedies instead of turning to the biomedical model. For example, one night while interpreting at the Migrant Night Clinic in Beaufort, South Carolina, I was speaking with a migrant worker during Triage asking her about medications she was taking. She said a word that I did not instantly recognize so I translated it on my phone- bird seed. She had been eating bird seed as a remedy for diabetes. This was the first realization I had about self-treatment and home remedies. In Spanish for Healthcare Professionals (SPAN 360), we discussed the concept of “autotratamiento” or self-medicating and the potentially harmful side effects that herbal medicines can have when mixed with prescription medicine provided by a doctor.
In addition to linguistic and cultural challenges faced by this population in the healthcare sector, many do not seek care because of the lack of health insurance. Many of the Hispanic patients that I have interpreted for in the Good Samaritan Clinic have had occupations including landscaping, construction, and other hard labor jobs. Those jobs do not typically offer insurance, but have the potential to strain the body by working long hours, lifting heavy objects, and adding stress due to being paid minimum wages. In Beaufort, all of the migrant workers I interpret for live in camps (mobile homes with windowed air-conditioning systems and porter potties outside the mobile homes), travel across the East Coast sometimes without their families, work into the night well past dark, are paid peanuts in comparison to the work they do picking tomatoes and watermelons, and some have never before seen a doctor nor know how to write.
Health Economics (HSPM 412) was a second within the classroom experience that shed light on the economical side of healthcare inequality in the United States. We discussed preventative care and insurance. Preventative care for one is not easily accessible to lower-income populations. As a result of this lack of access and additional cultural components, many Latino patients do not seek medical care until absolutely necessary and ultimately wind up in the Emergency Room from where they receive a bill of hundreds of dollars that is (when not paid) deferred onto those who have insurance. This cycle contributes to the trillions of dollars that we spend on healthcare, yet despite the amount of money we spend we are not in the top ten healthiest nations- something we often discussed in HSPM 412.
One patient of the Migrant Night Clinic went to the Emergency Room in Beaufort without an interpreter, without insurance, and without any idea of how much it would cost him. He received a bill for over one thousand dollars although his medical issue had not even been solved at the Emergency Room. There are so many barriers that this patient faced as a Latino patient in the United States Healthcare system. Thankfully, there are places such as the Good Samaritan Clinic in Columbia and the Migrant Clinic in Beaufort that treat patients without health insurance, provide interpreters, and have volunteers and employees who are culturally competent in order to understand cultural differences.
After working in the healthcare sector with the Latino community and with supplementation of the coursework I completed in SPAN 360 and HSPM 412, I truly gained an understanding of the positives and negative of our healthcare system. In my Within the Classroom paper below titled "Spanish 360 Paper names redacted" I reflect on the experience I had shadowing professional interpreters at the Lexington Medical Center as part of the course requirement. The WTC paper is in Spanish but I summarize it below. From all of my experiences, I have taken the time to reflect upon the importance of preventative care and how cost-effective preventative care for everyone ultimately lessons the financial burden of all Americans.
Many first-generation Hispanics come to the United States with hopes of the American Dream but often face challenges linguistically, financially, and culturally. These challenges later are reflected in terms of medical problems and chronic disease due to lack of preventative care and high amounts of stress. First-generation Hispanics often join Hispanic churches and speak Spanish among themselves. As they have children who enroll in school and learn English, their children become their interpreters and even interpret for medical check-ups and appointments.
In regards to culture and healthcare, it is common that first-generation Hispanics use home remedies instead of turning to the biomedical model. For example, one night while interpreting at the Migrant Night Clinic in Beaufort, South Carolina, I was speaking with a migrant worker during Triage asking her about medications she was taking. She said a word that I did not instantly recognize so I translated it on my phone- bird seed. She had been eating bird seed as a remedy for diabetes. This was the first realization I had about self-treatment and home remedies. In Spanish for Healthcare Professionals (SPAN 360), we discussed the concept of “autotratamiento” or self-medicating and the potentially harmful side effects that herbal medicines can have when mixed with prescription medicine provided by a doctor.
In addition to linguistic and cultural challenges faced by this population in the healthcare sector, many do not seek care because of the lack of health insurance. Many of the Hispanic patients that I have interpreted for in the Good Samaritan Clinic have had occupations including landscaping, construction, and other hard labor jobs. Those jobs do not typically offer insurance, but have the potential to strain the body by working long hours, lifting heavy objects, and adding stress due to being paid minimum wages. In Beaufort, all of the migrant workers I interpret for live in camps (mobile homes with windowed air-conditioning systems and porter potties outside the mobile homes), travel across the East Coast sometimes without their families, work into the night well past dark, are paid peanuts in comparison to the work they do picking tomatoes and watermelons, and some have never before seen a doctor nor know how to write.
Health Economics (HSPM 412) was a second within the classroom experience that shed light on the economical side of healthcare inequality in the United States. We discussed preventative care and insurance. Preventative care for one is not easily accessible to lower-income populations. As a result of this lack of access and additional cultural components, many Latino patients do not seek medical care until absolutely necessary and ultimately wind up in the Emergency Room from where they receive a bill of hundreds of dollars that is (when not paid) deferred onto those who have insurance. This cycle contributes to the trillions of dollars that we spend on healthcare, yet despite the amount of money we spend we are not in the top ten healthiest nations- something we often discussed in HSPM 412.
One patient of the Migrant Night Clinic went to the Emergency Room in Beaufort without an interpreter, without insurance, and without any idea of how much it would cost him. He received a bill for over one thousand dollars although his medical issue had not even been solved at the Emergency Room. There are so many barriers that this patient faced as a Latino patient in the United States Healthcare system. Thankfully, there are places such as the Good Samaritan Clinic in Columbia and the Migrant Clinic in Beaufort that treat patients without health insurance, provide interpreters, and have volunteers and employees who are culturally competent in order to understand cultural differences.
After working in the healthcare sector with the Latino community and with supplementation of the coursework I completed in SPAN 360 and HSPM 412, I truly gained an understanding of the positives and negative of our healthcare system. In my Within the Classroom paper below titled "Spanish 360 Paper names redacted" I reflect on the experience I had shadowing professional interpreters at the Lexington Medical Center as part of the course requirement. The WTC paper is in Spanish but I summarize it below. From all of my experiences, I have taken the time to reflect upon the importance of preventative care and how cost-effective preventative care for everyone ultimately lessons the financial burden of all Americans.
WTC- Spanish 360 Paper names Redacted.docx | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | docx |
In summary, the WTC paper that I attached above is a reflection of the shadowing that was required as part of the Spanish for Healthcare Professionals Course (SPAN 360). I discuss the "official interpreter rules" and whether they were or were not followed by the interpreters I shadowed. In addition, I discuss the fact that many Hispanics do not realize all of their rights as patients- including the right to interpretation services. I also explained my past experiences working in the St. Helena clinic and with other organizations including PASOS and The Good Samaritan Clinic. I discuss the struggles of interpreting as someone who knows Spanish as a second language- I have to gain rapport from my clients in order for them to feel confident in me as their interpreter. Lastly, I mention Graduation with Leadership Distinction and how shadowing was beneficial for me to gain Beyond the Classroom Experience.
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