NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population
Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population
As stated by the World Health Organization, access to care is the right of every person in the world. Immigration is challenging for people as they face several issues. One of the highlighted issues is difficulty in accessing healthcare services. Immigration to the US is expanding day by day due to the economic stability of America in the world. But immigrants residing in the US faced challenges due to ethnic differences and socioeconomic status. The project focuses on addressing the healthcare needs of the immigrant population and implementing policies to provide equal care to immigrants.
The Rationale for a Particular Immigrant Population Health Care Needs
Immigration of Mexican people with disability to the United States is expanding daily. These immigrants face difficulty accessing healthcare services due to racial and ethnic differences (Sheftel & Heiland, 2018). Healthcare disparities exist in the US based on ethnicity and cultural and socioeconomic differences, so it is the need of the hour to address the immigrant healthcare needs to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate among the Mexican immigrant group. A study by Levchenko (2021) explored that the prevalence of comorbid conditions is more common among Mexican immigrants, so they need more care to prevent the condition from worsening.
NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population
Selection Criteria
There is a huge economic difference between immigrants and the residents of the United States. I searched for the large group of immigrants having a disability who need healthcare services to live healthy lives. Therefore, I choose the Mexican immigrant group having a physical or intellectual disability for the project to make them aware of the healthcare policies to address their needs.
Assessing the Healthcare Needs of Mexican Immigrants
Assessing healthcare needs help in deciding to develop a care plan according to the needs. The Mexican-disabled immigrants and refugees in the US did not receive the care plan as needed due to different barriers (Cabral & Cuevas, 2020). The SWOT analysis tool is quite helpful in addressing the needs of immigrants. SWOT consists of four components such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So SWOT uses to address the healthcare needs of Mexican immigrant groups.
- Strengths: Strong communication skill helps some of the immigrants to access healthcare services (Monserud, 2018)
- Weaknesses: Undocumentation prevents immigrants from receiving healthcare services in the US. Moreover, the unavailability of documentation and fear of deportation hinder them from accessing healthcare services (Echave & Gonzalez, 2022).
- Opportunities: The community health centers that deal with immigrants and refugees provide the services of documentation so that immigrants get legal status. Moreover, the non-profit organization is also willing to provide healthcare services despite of lack of documentation (Beck et al., 2018).
- Threats: The fear of deportation is a continuous threat for Mexican immigrants. The physical disability and attitude of medical personnel due to ethnic differences also deter them from addressing their healthcare needs.
Stakeholders’ Participation in Care Plan
The organization plays a key role in mitigating the healthcare needs of disabled Mexican immigrants. Different organizations at local and international levels play their part in addressing the needs of immigrants and refugees to live sustainable lives. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Immigrant Health Initiative are preparing a task force that addresses the immigrant’s healthcare needs within the United States (Beck et al., 2018).
The state, federal government, and other local bodies also contribute as stakeholders in providing health care services to the immigrant population. The center for disease control and prevention (CDC) provides guidelines to healthcare personnel to address immigrants’ needs and provide care equitably. The aim is to improve and promote the health of every person in the United States without any discrimination (CDC, 2021)
NURS FPX 6618 Assessment 2 Mobilizing Care for an Immigrant Population
The communication barrier prevents healthcare professionals from interacting with immigrants. Moreover, immigrants with intellectual disabilities unable to communicate about health issues. Therefore, communication devices rather than language would better address healthcare needs (Agaronnik et al., 2019). Lawmakers would also contribute as stakeholders as they design and implement laws and regulations for immigrants to get easy access to healthcare facilities (Gottlieb et al., 2020).
Analysis of Environment and Provider Capabilities
The environment and provider capabilities help manage the needs of immigrants with disability. The National Council on Disability (NCD) is a federal agency that empowers disabled people in the US community. It designed different policies for disabled people to access education and healthcare services without discrimination (National Council on Disability, n.d.)
The environment received by the Mexican immigrants is unfriendly and hostile as they are unaware of the culture and values of the United States. The feeling of loneliness and fear of deportation also inhibit them from interacting within the US communities. Several measures or initiatives were taken by the local and national organizations to settle the immigrants into US culture. The Disability and Immigration Taskforce of Illinois (DITI) initiative help in empowering immigrants with disabilities to adjust to the community by providing them with education regarding American culture (The University of Illinois Chicago, n.d.)
Characteristics of Mexican Immigrants
The Mexican immigrants are non-residents of the US aged above 25 with a low education level. Two states are highly concentrated with Mexican immigrants. California and Texas have a 35% and 26% immigrants ratio (Noe-Bustamante et al., 2019). They have no or low-income jobs due to their low educational background. The lack of insurance and low-paying jobs make the situation miserable for immigrants, and they also face discrimination due to their economic status in the US. (Wang & Sakamoto, 2021). 66 percent of Mexican immigrants have nonfluent English which leads to a high ratio of unemployment among immigrants. It also deters them from attaining health insurance. Moreover, 21% of Mexican immigrants live in an unhealthy environment that makes them prone to infectious diseases and other co-morbid conditions. In the political aspect, they are not treated fairly as the residents of the US (Batalova, 2018).
Current Organizational Policies for Healthcare Provision
Various policies are available for providing healthcare services to immigrants in the US along with US residents. One of the policies is Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. It provides financial aid to low-income and disabled people. Moreover, immigrants with disabilities also qualify for this program (Echave & Gonzalez, 2022). SSI assists Mexican disabled people who face financial instability due to low income. Moreover, the program also aids elderly people who have age above 65 and present with a disability, as they also have financial limits to address their healthcare needs. Thus SSI policy will be helpful for Mexican immigrants in the US by providing financial aid for their healthcare needs.
Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) also guarantees to provide treatment to everyone without discrimination. (Lindor & Ghaith, 2022). Additionally, different healthcare insurance programs are available in the community health center to treat immigrants irrespective of legal status in the US.
The healthcare policies under the Affordable Care Act help undocumented immigrants to assess healthcare services. Lack of documentation hinders immigrants from receiving any kind of federal-based health insurance programs (Park & Chokshi, 2022)
Assumptions Associated with Mexican Immigrant’s Access to Care
There are obstacles in providing care to Mexican immigrants with disability. Communication and interaction are the mainstays to providing effective care plans. But the, cultural and ethnic differences hinder the transition of care for immigrants. Migrants having intellectual disabilities unable to communicate their health issues, whereas physical disable people lack confidence in expressing their health concerns. Language barriers exist between healthcare professionals and immigrants due to different backgrounds, which reduce their understanding related to health issues (Timmins, 2002). Therefore, cultural and linguistic differences hinder the provision of an effective care plan. Introducing a rich culture and diversified healthcare setting is necessary to cope the cultural and linguistic differences. The interdisciplinary healthcare team should organize health-related seminars in community healthcare facilities to educate people about health-related issues.
U.S. Healthcare Policies Guidance on Current Standards
The US represents a large number of immigrants and implemented healthcare policies that provide healthcare access to immigrants equitably:
- Affordable Care Act (Porteny et al., 2020)
- American Disability Act (ADA, 2022)
The ACA offers healthcare services to immigrants despite undocumented immigrants in the US. ACA also aids the other groups that help immigrants receive healthcare services without discrimination. (Porteny et al., 2020). The second important healthcare policy is the Americans Disability Act, which also ensures fair treatment to all without discrimination. These policies emphasize the health care providers to address and manage the healthcare needs of all people without any discrimination. They should understand the fact that Mexican immigrants are now part of the US community and they should be treated equitably. By adhering to these policies healthcare professionals help undocumented immigrants to access healthcare services without financial burden. Moreover, these policies allocate resources that help healthcare professionals to provide healthcare services to the immigrant equitably
Conclusion
The mobilizing care plan for Mexican immigrants with a disability is of utmost importance to identify the healthcare needs after immigration to the U.S. Disability is challenging, and immigration to the US also intensifies the situation for immigrants. It is a need of the hour to educate Mexican immigrants about the US healthcare policies so that they avail of the care services when needed.
References
ADA. (2022, November 19). Guide to disability rights laws. ADA.gov. https://www.ada.gov/resources/disability-rights-guide/
Agaronnik, N., Campbell, E. G., Ressalam, J., & Iezzoni, L. I. (2019). Communicating with patients with disability: Perspectives of practicing physicians. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 34(7). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-04911-0
Batalova, J. (2018, October 31). Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Migrationpolicy.org. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/mexican-immigrants-united-states
Beck, T. L., Le, T.-K., Henry-Okafor, Q., & Shah, M. K. (2018). Medical care for undocumented immigrants. Physician Assistant Clinics, 4(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpha.2018.08.002
Cabral, J., & Cuevas, A. G. (2020). Health inequities among latinos/hispanics: Documentation status as a determinant of health. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 7(5). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00710-0
CDC. (2021, March 24). About immigrant, refugee, and migrant health | Immigrant and Refugee Health | CDC. Www.cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/about-irmh.html
Echave, P., & Gonzalez, D. (2022). Being an immigrant with disabilities characteristics of a population facing multiple structural challenges. Urban.org. https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/Being%20an%20Immigrant%20with%20Disabilities.pdf
Gottlieb, N., Trummer, U., Davidovitch, N., Krasnik, A., Juárez, S. P., Rostila, M., Biddle, L., & Bozorgmehr, K. (2020). Economic arguments in migrant health policymaking: Proposing a research agenda. Globalization and Health, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00642-8
Lindor, R. A., & Ghaith, S. (2022). Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Laws of Medicine, 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08162-0_6
Levchenko, Y. (2021). Aging into disadvantage: Disability crossover among Mexican immigrants in America. Social Science & Medicine, 285, 114290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114290
Monserud, M. A. (2018). Later-life trajectories of cognitive functioning among immigrants of Mexican origin: Implications of age at immigration and social resources. Ethnicity & Health, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2018.1547370
National Council on Disability. (n.d.). National Council on Disability | Home. Beta.ncd.gov. Retrieved January 23, 2023, from https://beta.ncd.gov/
Noe-Bustamante, L., Flores, A., & Sono Shah. (2019, September 16). Facts on hispanics of mexican origin in the United States, 2017. Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project; Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. Pewresearch.org. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/fact-sheet/u-s-hispanics-facts-on-mexican-origin-latinos/
Porteny, T., Ponce, N., & Sommers, B. D. (2020). Immigrants and the Affordable Care Act: changes in coverage and access to care by documentation status. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-020-01124-0
Park, J. K., & Chokshi, D. A. (2022). Toward a new standard of health for immigrants in the United States. Lancet Regional Health. Americas, 10, 100238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100238
Sheftel, M., & Heiland, F. W. (2018). Disability crossover: Is there a Hispanic immigrant health advantage that reverses from working to old age? Demographic Research, 39, 209–250. https://doi.org/10.4054/demres.2018.39.7
Timmins, C. (2002). The impact of language barriers on the health care of Latinos in the United States: A review of the literature and guidelines for practice. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 47(2), 80–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1526-9523(02)00218-0
University of Illinois Chicago. (n.d.). Disability Organizations | Disability Cultural Center | University of Illinois Chicago. Retrieved January 31, 2023, from https://dcc.uic.edu/resources/disability-organizations/
Wang, S. X., & Sakamoto, A. (2021). Can higher education ameliorate racial/ethnic disadvantage? An analysis of the wage assimilation of college-educated hispanic Americans. SAGE Open, 11(2), 215824402110091. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211009197
