The High Point community is tucked away, just west of the Bayside Bridge and south of East bay, in Clearwater. It is a low to moderate income community that has a large black and Latino population. Ebony Murray is a single mother who lives there.
Murray has health insurance though her job now, but she said she can easily recall a time when she did not.
“It was awful.”
She gave birth to her first child and was stuck with a hospital bill for more than $1000. It was money she did not have. The hospital visit put her into debt and she spent years paying it off.
Murray said her story is all too familiar in her community. Most of the families are uninsured, many do not qualify for Medicaid and others are unaware of the healthcare that is available to them. And for those who are aware of the different healthcare options, they do not further seek them out “because they’ve been turned away in the past.”
High Point resident, Kaisha Alimar, volunteers at the YMCA there. She said she sees on a daily basis how improper healthcare seems to be a problem, particularly for the Latinos in her community who, “ are hesitant to search for healthcare because of language barriers or not being citizens.”
The Fall Health Awareness Festival, Alimar said, hoped to change some of that. It was held last Saturday, at the High Point YMCA. It offered free health screenings, including HIV tests, glucose monitors and blood pressure tests.
Josh Armstrong, from the Pinellas County Health Department, conducted some of the tests. He said “ the paperwork can be confusing and intimidating at times,“ and he was there to close the gap between minorities and healthcare.
At the health fair, Armstrong said he experienced the struggle that language barriers create. He gave a blood sugar test to a Latino woman. He said he had to have “ a translator… and be extra sensitive to make sure he understood her healthcare situation.”
The YMCA’s George Garcia said the first time event was thrown to not only connect low income families to healthcare, but to honor National Latino Aids Awareness Day that was on October 15.
The Latino Commission on Aids (LCOA) reports that while Latinos make up only 13 percent of the population nationally, they make up 18 percent of new aids cases each years. And it is worse for Latino men than women who create the majority of the cases at 76 percent. Latino women, however, are still at a disadvantage. They are four times more likely than white women to contract the disease.
Pinellas County Health Department’s Lynn Swain was at the event encouraging HIV testing and handing out condoms, information packets, and warm words of encouragement. She said she wants to make Latinos “aware of the high risks they face.”
The best thing Latinos and all minorities can do, Swain said, is get tested for HIV. Most don’t and Swain said the reason for this is “fear of knowing.”
Yet, Swain said she wants Latinos to know there is hope. Lots of hope. “Ten years ago when awareness was being raised among the black community, people did not want to get tested because they did not want to know. The perception was ’If I have it, I’m gonna die,’ but over the last 15 years a lot has changed in treatment. Now a person can live a long time if they do certain things…up to 40 or 50 years longer.”
Dante Ross is also from the Pinellas County Health Department. He was there to not only warn Hispanics about HIV, but Hepatitis.
Hepatitis, Ross said, is another disease that affects not only Latinos, but a lot of minorities. It can be contracted through contact with infected person’s blood or body fluid.
There are not many symptoms for Hepatitis A, B or C, which Ross said creates a problem. Most minorities won’t get tested or seek medical help “ unless they have to.”
The best way to prevent Hepatitis A or B is to get a vaccination, Ross said. There is no vaccination for HCV, but there is treatment for the different types of Hepatitis.
After the hundreds of people moved through the YMCA, visiting the different information tables, by the end of that day, Ross said he calls the event, “ a success.” He was able to “target the population” he wanted and get healthcare knowledge to those who have been disconnected for so long.
Ebony Murray agrees. Yet, she said that beyond the help that was given to families on Saturday, it is important “for low income people to get out to similar events that are held through out the year at the YMCA.”
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.