Immigrant Health Issues Addressed

Immigrants face a multitude of challenges: finding work, learning a new language, negotiating an unfamiliar culture. Workers and agencies wishing to help immigrants also face many challenges.

The School of Health and Environment (SHE) helped build cross-cultural understanding with a recent seminar, “Eliminating Health Disparities and Promoting Health and Safety in our Immigrant Communities.” The seminar was one in the Dean’s Seminar series on signature initiatives, organized by Research Prof. Cora Roelofs of the Work Environment Department.

Dean David Wegman opened the discussion, saying, “We have a tremendous opportunity to build collaborations with immigrant community organizations in our region, to define the School of Health and Environment's mission in action, in research, in service and in teaching – in ways that reflect our commitment to the health of these communities, in all respects.”

A panel discussion laid out the key concepts of how to work with immigrant communities. A respectful attitude is key to developing mutually beneficial collaborations, whether for research or intervention. Historically, researchers have been faulted for viewing immigrant groups as opportunities – convenient populations to study – rather than focusing on meeting needs.

Many health problems arise from the circumstances that immigrants were fleeing, from poverty to violence and war. Other problems are associated with conditions common to new immigrant groups: substandard or unhealthy housing, dangerous work and poor safety training. Faced with these challenges and the ones they left in their home countries, many immigrants suffer depression and other mental health problems. More than 26 percent of patients at a local community health center have diabetes – a disease that is hard to treat even without cultural and language barriers.

Still, immigrant communities also have their share of factors that promote health, including traditions of diet and exercise that tend to reduce the risk of chronic disease, particularly strong social networks and ethnic media outlets to carry health messages.

The panel members included Milagró Grullon, neighborhood planner from the Lawrence Department of Community and Economic Development and convener of the Mayor’s Health Task Force; Asst. Prof. Maria Brunette of the Work Environment Department; Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Boston; Asst. Prof. Eduardo Siqueira of the Community Health and Sustainability Department; Sonith Peou, program director of the Metta Health Center, part of the Lowell Community Health Center; and Paulette Renault-Caragianes, community liaison with the Lowell Community Health Center.