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Health-Care Community Short on Minority Caregivers

Posted on: Monday, 5 December 2005, 21:00 CST

By Annette Wells, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

Dec. 5--Once upon a time it was believed that if blacks and Latinos' health statistics were worse than whites, it was largely due to poverty, education and lack of health insurance. While those are still major factors, today some say the issue is a bit more complicated; it's not just about helping someone fill out a form or translating for them.

"Just because you have one person who can speak the same language as another doesn't mean the information is going to come out correct," said Zaida Cordero-MacIntyre assistant professor of nutrition at Loma Linda University's School of Public Health, who is trying to address health-care disparities among minorities.

People relate to other people who are just like them. In other words, minorities tend to trust people who look, act and speak as they do.

Problem is, while minorities hold the majority of all chronic disease statistics, they are the minority among professionals in medical care.

In order to address the overall issue of health-care disparities among minorities, experts say that disparity must change.

The health-care community must get more minorities into the profession in order to address issues, in particular, language barriers.

But even if steps are made in the next five years, the gap is still too large, said Diane Woods, executive director of the African American Health Initiative. The organization is seeking to address health-care disparities among minorities in the Inland Empire, blacks in particular.

"That's going to take the next 20 years," she said. "We have to recruit and we have to work with what we already have."

Among the Latino population, language is one of many barriers to health care. One in four is uninsured and one in seven has Type II diabetes.

If more minorities, in particular Latinos, enter the health-care profession, the language and cultural barriers would likely come down, and hopefully the statistics too, said Lupe Alonzo-Diaz, executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California.

The nonprofit organization uses advocacy, education and research to improve the overall health of Latinos.

Alice Chen, medical director of internal medicine at the University of San Francisco, said having people of different backgrounds in the health-care profession is an overall good thing in diverse communities.

"No. 1, society, cultural, ethnical and racial diversity enriches us all. On top of that, people who come from different cultures are much more attuned to that culture's needs," she said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

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Source: San Bernardino County Sun

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