Thread: HIV-AIDS Care in Md. Comes Under Criticism

www.washingtonpost.com

HIV-AIDS Care in Md. Comes Under Criticism

By Phuong Ly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 2, 2005; B04

Public health clinics have such a shortage of Spanish-speaking case managers that janitors or other untrained workers sometimes are called on to translate sensitive information about HIV-AIDS to clients, according to a study released yesterday by CASA of Maryland, a Silver Spring-based immigrant advocacy group.

In focus groups of Latino residents and surveys of service providers in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, the study also found that most pamphlets and educational material on the disease are available only in English and that clients often fear the actions of immigration authorities and stigma in their community for seeking services.

Carmen A. Valenzuela-Dall, a doctor and researcher who authored the study, said governments need to do more to provide basic health services and need to hire culturally diverse and bilingual staffs.

Gaining access to health care is "such an adventure in this country for the undocumented immigrants and the people who don't speak English," Valenzuela-Dall said. Without bilingual health workers and materials, "how can we pretend to provide services?"

She compared the situation to putting up billboards telling illiterate people to write their governments for help.

The CASA report, funded by the Washington AIDS Partnership, a philanthropic group, was released in commemoration of World AIDS Day.

At yesterday's news conference, Maryland and Montgomery health officials said that they have worked to provide better outreach to foreign language speakers but acknowledged that much more needs to be done.

Naomi Tomoyasu, acting director of the state's AIDS Administration, said the agency is planning to buy one or two mobile health units to roam immigrant-heavy communities in Prince George's and Montgomery to reach more residents.

However, she said, lack of funding may curtail initiatives. The agency receives about $50 million a year, most of it from the federal government, to distribute to public health providers statewide, but budget cuts are expected next year as Congress slashes spending on social services.

Tomoyasu said the number of Latinos infected with HIV was probably "woefully underrepresented and undercounted."

Since HIV data collection began in 1994, about 2,200 new infections a year have been reported in Maryland. The state had 28,226 cases as of June 2004, about 23 percent of them in Prince George's and Montgomery counties. The numbers do not reflect the ethnicity of the cases.

Nationwide, Latinos account for 18.3 percent of the people living with HIV-AIDS, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Richard M. Helfrich, Montgomery's deputy health director, said that even as the county improves services for Latinos in Spanish, workers speaking other languages are needed. A quarter of the clients at the county's health clinic on Dennis Avenue in Silver Spring are French-speaking African immigrants, the same percentage as the Latino clients, he said.

Montgomery County Council President Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring) said county leaders have to do more to invest in culturally inclusive services. Otherwise, "that's not only bad public health policy, but that's against the law," he said. Federal law mandates that publicly funded agencies make services accessible to all eligible people, including those with limited English skills.

"Access to health care is not a privilege. It's a right," Perez said.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_repo ... R_ID=34117

Daily HIV/AIDS Report



Across The Nation | Maryland Immigrant Advocacy Group Says HIV/AIDS Services Lack Appropriate Translation Services
[Dec 05, 2005]
CASA de Maryland, a Silver Spring, Md.-based immigrant advocacy group, on Thursday released a report saying that Maryland public health clinics had a "shortage" in translation services for immigrants seeking HIV/AIDS services, the Washington Post reports. According to the report, which was funded by the Washington AIDS Partnership, janitors and other untrained workers sometimes must translate personal information to patients, and information on HIV/AIDS often is printed only in English. The report also noted that patients often avoid seeking information or treatment because they fear being exposed to stigma and discrimination in their communities or attracting the attention of immigration authorities. Study author Carmen Valenzuela-Dall said seeking health care is "such an adventure in this country for the undocumented immigrants and the people who don't speak English," adding that governments need to improve services and hire more culturally diverse and bilingual health care workers (Ly, Washington Post, 12/2).

Gaining access to health care is "such an adventure in this country for the undocumented immigrants and the people who don't speak English," Valenzuela-Dall said. Without bilingual health workers and materials, "how can we pretend to provide services?"

WHY DOES THIS crawl all over me?? Over and over and OVER. NOTE that the author says "BILINGUAL" again. What does she propose be done about all other languages spoken by NON-AMERICANS??? Why does she think that it is OUR responsibility to PROVIDE those services? Isn't health care available in Mexico? Central America?? THEIR COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN???

And, the IDIOT doesn't HESITATE to call them exactly what they are--UNDOCUMENTED. How, please tell me, can they continue to JUSTIFY this THEFT from our country and our taxpayers?

Gaining access to health care is "such an adventure in this country for the undocumented immigrants and the people who don't speak English," Valenzuela-Dall said.

Whine, whine, complain, complain.

Do these "immigrant advocacy" groups ever do anything else?

Hey, I've got an idea. Why don't they provide the translators?

Want a real adventure?

Try getting health care as an "undocumented immigrant" in the Promised Land of Mexico. For that matter, try getting health care as a poor citizen of Mexico.

Absolutely. THAT would be a good place for La Raza to spend that FOUR MILLION DOLLARS they just received in our BUDGET BILL.