141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

285860
Increasing access to healthcare services to new immigrants: Somali and ethiopian communities in Columbus Ohio

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Nebiyu Geberetsadik, MSW, LSW , Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
Lea Dooley, MPH, MCHES , Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH
Issues: In Columbus, OH Somalis and Ethiopians remain an underserved population in terms of access to preventive health care, HIV information and prenatal care. Access to women is particularly limited based on cultural norms and a lack of English speaking gate keepers in the community. Description: The Family AIDS and Community Education Services (FACES) program at Nationwide Children's Hospital provides primary care services to families with HIV+ members of Franklin county. The FACES program targets immigrants and New Americans in Franklin county focusing on pregnant women and families with young children who are disproportionately affected by HIV. Analyzing cultural and gender norms of East African immigrants, FACES staff has defined specific interventions that reach primary and secondary gate keepers in the East African community in order to increase healthcare services. FACES staff created protocols on how to make introductions to the community Imams, to the heads of the family and directly to wives and children. By building trust through community gate keepers, FACES staff developed an innovative model with the participation of community members. Lessons Learned: Participants will review the analysis of East African immigrant community gate keepers. FACES staff will demonstrate how to work within this system so that the community model is built from within. Recommendations: Compare cultural trends in new American immigrants and define community gate keepers. Identify the steps in reaching out to these gate keepers in order to build a culturally appropriate community outreach model with the buy in of primary and secondary gate keepers.

Learning Areas:
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Identify critical elements for approaching gate keepers in the East African community. Design outreach protocols based upon your hard to reach populations. Define strategies that work and identify provider bais.

Keywords: Barriers to Care, Community Outreach

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal coordinator for several federal and state grants conducting outreach to East African communities for HIV/STI's with a focus on reaching women who are at risk for low birthweight babies. I am currently developing a policy paper on reaching African populations in the ghreater Columbus community for healthcare providers. I am fluent in several East African languages and have several years experience conducting mobile van outreach in urban areas.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.