Thread: No Fear For Exposure: Immigrants Urged To Use Hospitals

http://www.queenstribune.com/news/1149270355.html

June 2, 1:45 PM

No Fear For Exposure: Immigrants Urged To Use Hospitals


By ELLEN THOMPSON


Traveling across the border, many undocumented immigrants arrive in the United States with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. There is one thing a large percentage of them do carry with them though. A microscopic object that could determine life or death for the immigrants and the communities they enter, World Health Organization officials said. Disease.

Over the past five years, cases of tuberculosis, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis B, measles and the potentially deadly parasitic disease Chagas, have been increasing along with the number of immigrants that enter the country each year, officials said.

Looking at the city’s diverse population and listening to heated immigration reform debate, officials sent a message this week that they care considerably more about the public health than they do about a person’s residency status.

New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation President Alan Aviles and Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Guillermo Linares said that thousands of potential patients have never walked through the doors of Elmhurst Hospital Center or the borough’s HHC affiliated clinics for fear of deportation.

To address the concerns of immigrant New Yorkers who maybe avoiding health services in fear of having their immigration status reported to federal authorities, Aviles and Linares launched a public awareness campaign.
“Fundamental concerns have been raised for us at public hospitals,” Aviles said. “Concerns that some undocumented immigrants will avoid seeking immediate health care, due to lack of understanding about our mission and strict confidentiality practices. That is a threat to our immigrant communities and the broader public health.”

In a city of 2 million foreign-born residents and an undocumented population estimated at 500,000. “Our priority is to build and maintain the confidence of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who continue to sustain our workforce, economy and communities,” Linares said. “Protecting our city means keeping all New Yorkers healthy.”

The campaign, which reinforces the city’s existing confidentiality policy, features an open letter from Aviles and Linares, available in 10 languages, stressing every patient’s right to health care privacy, reaffirming HHC’s policy against disclosing immigration status and urging immigrants to visit public hospitals.

Aviles has heard from physicians of instances when patients at Elmhurst Hospital have asked to be seen in private offices away from the hospital, due to their fears of being reported to federal authorities, even though the hospital provides outreach and prevention programs tailored for immigrant communities.

“We have a Hepatitis B program at Elmhurst that is directly aimed towards Asian Americans, who have a 35-times higher infection rate than all New Yorkers,” he said. “The sooner we can detect Hepatitis B, the sooner we can treat it and continue with preventive measures in those communities.”

Juanita Lara from the Latin American Integration Center in Woodside has worked with undocumented immigrants in Queens and seen their fear and pain first hand.

Convinced they don’t have access to preventive care like annual exams and pap smears, many undocumented immigrants don’t seek out medical care until a symptom arises, and then it is only emergency care.

Even though a majority of the medical needs she sees among her clients are work related, she said there are at least 500 more that could affect their communities.

“There are so many instances when the problem is not the medical problem – it is how long they wait to seek help and the fear,” Lara said. “Sometimes I question their tolerance of pain or the discomfort of the illness, versus the fear of being turned into INS or even worse – they get billed. These people are eligible for help.”

Its really sad when a city depends on criminals

Quote "In a city of 2 million foreign-born residents and an undocumented population estimated at 500,000. “Our priority is to build and maintain the confidence of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who continue to sustain our workforce, economy and communities,”