142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

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Falling through the policy cracks: The Peruvian experience in Chile

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM

Fiona Weeks, BA, expected May 2014 , Community Health Program, Tufts University, Medford, MA
This session, “Falling through the policy cracks: the Peruvian experience in Chile,” will examine the health care access and health of the Peruvian immigrant community in Santiago, Chile. The flow of Peruvian immigrants to Chile has increased exponentially over the last decade, but Chilean immigration policy and social service infrastructure has not responded to the recent changes in the country´s composition. This lack of current policy, rather than creating barriers to health care for Peruvian immigrants, has left many cracks for them to fall through, making them vulnerable to workplace abuse, to loss of documentation status, to discrimination, to limited access to safe housing, and to long waiting lists for needed care like dental and mental health services. Through analysis of original interviews with Peruvian immigrants and key informants in Santiago completed in 2013 by the author, this presentation will discuss the ways in which the policy of the receiving society, Chile, impedes positive health outcomes among the Peruvian immigrant community. It will further discuss the current policy initiatives at the local and national levels and how these policies may or may not meet the needs of this group.

Learning Areas:

Diversity and culture
Public health or related public policy
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe the immigration and social policy of Chile as it applies to the health of Peruvian immigrants Discuss the ways in which the needs of the Peruvian immigrants in Santiago are not met by the current policy context of Chile

Keyword(s): Policy/Policy Development, Immigrant Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have a BA from Tufts University in Sociology and Community Health andduring my time there completed an honors thesis on Peruvian immigrant health in Chile. I conducted original qualitative research in Santiago, Chile with IRB approval and under the supervision of Community Health faculty at Tufts University. I will be pursuing a Master of Science in Public Health at the Bloomberg School of Johns Hopkins University beginning in the fall of 2014.
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.