Immigrant and newcomer communities across the country struggle with a variety of issues that impact negatively on their health and their capacity to access health care. They are unclear about how to access the US health care system and other social services, since they don't know how these programs work, or how they intersect with the INS. They also experience barriers due to culture, poverty, climate, language, history. Their framework is usually the extended family. Generalist outreach workers who can address whatever issue is "on top" for newcomer families are needed. Funding streams, however, result in outreach workers whose jobs are defined by specific services such as maternal and child health, substance abuse treatment, or STD transmission, and who often work with only one segment of a family. The paper to be presented will describe a process evaluation of a community outreach worker network, designed to share resources, facilitate cross referrals, and address gaps in information, services, and advocacy for immigrants and newcomers in an inner city urban neighborhood. It is a way to link workers who may be helping different members of the same families, and to assist worker's understanding of the various cultures in the neighborhood. The network includes workers from a variety of community based agencies, not only those related to health, in a neighborhood where the majority population is foreign born. We will discuss the preconditions for the network, how the network was created, and the impact on the health of newcomers and the neighborhood.
Learning Objectives: 1. Participants will be able to identify characteristics of immigrant and newcomer communities that contribute to barriers to use of health care and other servies. 2. Participants will be able to define effective models for outreach to these communities. 3. Participants will be able to evaluate the potential for use of generalist versus content or disease-specific health outreach.
Keywords: Immigrants, Access and Services
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.