Baltimore has a Hispanic population estimated at 50,000 by some experts, and yet local healthcare providers cannot supply this large portion of the population with proper healthcare services due to language and cultural barriers.
Alarmed at this development, Hopkins student Maria del Pilar Ortega decided to take action. She founded Programa Salud, a Homewood initiative for Hispanic and Latino Health in Baltimore.
Created in the spring of 2001 under the collaboration of Ortega and fellow students Melissa de Jesis, Yussein Aguirre and Romana Rahman, Programa Salud is a community service program of the Office of Volunteer Services and acts as a branch of the Baltimore City Health Department's Hispanic and Latino Healthcare Project.
"Our goal is to alleviate the healthcare problems of the Hispanic population," said Ortega.
Ortega claims the group will accomplish this goal through two tactics: "to target healthcare providers and educate them in issues of cultural competency so they are better equipped" and "to provide services for Hispanic Latinos."
The program currently has 60 people signed up as members, with 30 to 40 truly committed participants. Moreover, it has seven permanent board members who conduct administrative tasks. Members can become selectively involved in any of the five different activities Salud is currently hosting or planning. One of Salud's primary activities is a series of cultural competency workshops hosted by Union Memorial Hospital. They have already completed two of the monthly workshops.
"The workshops are designed to educate the hospital staff," said Liz Kim, the program's public relations manager.
Each workshop hosts several speakers with expertise in healthcare and usually addresses both the cultural and hypothetical aspects of interaction with the Hispanic population. Usually, one speaker discusses "the culture and gives staff members an understanding of what the Hispanic community needs," said Ortega. The second speaker concentrates on more practical subjects and instructs healthcare providers how to traverse the language barrier when treating a Hispanic or Latino patient.
Past speakers have included the administrative assistant to the Hispanic liaison at Baltimore City Health Department and a nurse at Planned Parenthood.
"We're also starting a program at Union Memorial Hospital to provide translation service for patients," said Ortega. The translation program is still in the planning stages, but Ortega said it should begin within a week.
In the translation program, student participants from Homewood, the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine will be provided with beepers and will be on call for service whenever the hospital requires their Spanish speaking abilities.
"We also volunteer at health fairs," said Ortega. "For example, a few weeks ago the Kidney Foundation had a kidney screening in east Baltimore where most Hispanics live. Salud students were there to help them read and fill out consent forms."
Salud also plans to establish a bilingual AIDS help line in which members will answer phone calls and respond to AIDS-related questions.
During the conference "Cultural Competency: Assuring Quality Healthcare Services for Latinos" at the School of Medicine on Oct. 3, Salud members helped with the logistics of the program. In fact, 388 healthcare providers from around the state of Maryland attended the conference to discuss the pressing issue.
As a branch of the Baltimore City Health Department's Healthcare Project, Salud fulfills one of the project's primary objectives: to raise student awareness of the Hispanic healthcare condition and stimulate involvement.
"One of Salud's most important goals is to increase awareness on campus of the urgency of the healthcare inadequacy for the Hispanic and Latino community and to encourage everyone to become culturally competent," said Ortega.
The Salud program addresses a pressing issue in contemporary Baltimore.
"There is a language barrier that prevents many Hispanics from receiving treatment because they cannot communicate their problems with doctors and there is a lack of translators," said Kim. "The patients may know beforehand that it might take them a long period of time to cure their illness if they go to an American hospital; therefore, they might just go to their community's 16 doctors who may not make the proper diagnosis."
One of the most important parts of a doctor/patient relationship is communication. Oftentimes, a doctor can find out more about a patient's problem by simply conducting an interview and finding out their medical history. Even in medical school, future doctors are taught that the patient history obtained in an interview can prevent unnecessary testing and medical procedures.
Salud meets once every two weeks on Sundays at 5 p.m. in the AMRI multipurpose room. It is not too late to join Salud and help those in need in the surrounding Baltimore community. It is up to each individual how much he or she donates to this very worthy cause. There are few qualifications other than being ready and willing to help. The group's contingency stems from all parts of the Hopkins community - not just Hispanics or Spanish speakers.
"You don't have to be Hispanic or speak Spanish to join," said Gavi Bogin-Farber, coordinator of cultural competency workshops.
Ortega added, "You don't have to be fluent in Spanish to give presentations, to volunteer at conferences or to help plan the workshops. The purpose is to educate, not to train them in Spanish.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.