Vulnerable Immigrant Populations in the New York Metropolitan Area and COVID-19 : Lessons Learned in the Epicenter of the Crisis

The epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis since March 17, 2020-the New York metropolitan area-is home to some of the largest Latino immigrant communities in the nation. These communities have long faced barriers to health care access, challenges due to immigration status, and financial and labor instability. The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated these existing issues in a vulnerable, often forgotten, immigrant community. It has been challenging for this population to access public information regarding COVID-19 testing, treatment, and assistance programs because this information has seldom been disseminated in Spanish and even less frequently in Portuguese. While long-term solutions will require time and changes to policy, some short-term measures can mitigate the current situation. The authors share their experience from Newark, New Jersey, where partnerships of public and private community-based organizations (CBOs) have been successful in establishing trust between the health care system and a fearful Latino community. The Ironbound Initiative, a student group at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey, has partnered with Mantena Global Care, a Brazilian CBO in Newark, to facilitate dissemination of COVID-19-relevant information. Medical student volunteers, removed from their clinical duties, serve as virtual patient navigators, using social media to reach community members with the goals of improving awareness of precautions to take during the pandemic and of increasing access to needed medical care. These students have collaborated with colleagues in other disciplines to provide necessary legal guidance to community members fearful of seeking care because of their immigration status. The authors urge other academic institutions across the country to recruit multidisciplinary teams of medical, health professions, and law students invested in their local communities and to empower students to partner with CBOs, immigrant community leaders, faith-based organizations, hospitals, and local authorities to support these vulnerable communities during this crisis.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2020

Erschienen:

2020

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:95

Enthalten in:

Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges - 95(2020), 12 vom: 01. Dez., Seite 1827-1830

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Behbahani, Sara [VerfasserIn]
Smith, Cynthia A [VerfasserIn]
Carvalho, Michelly [VerfasserIn]
Warren, Christopher J [VerfasserIn]
Gregory, Micah [VerfasserIn]
Silva, Nicole A [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Journal Article

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 08.12.2020

Date Revised 11.11.2023

published: Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1097/ACM.0000000000003518

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM310349710