As a translator at the Near West free clinic, I have noticed a striking lack in knowledge about available medical aid be it in preemptive care, treatment, or obtaining medication. Many long-since residents of our community who are non-English-speaking lack very basic facilities such as good-rx and medicaid, and are completely unaware of the existence of free clinics. For this reason, a staggering amount of these people go decades without seeing a physician, even when they experience serious medical concerns. Things like hypertension, elevated lipids, or high blood sugar are treatable ailments that are all too common among the population, but without visiting a primary-care physician for so long and without knowledge, much of the non-English-speaking population is left to suffer unnecessarily.
About 4 percent of the Indianapolis population is LEP (limited English proficiency) and Spanish speakin–this number doesn’t seem very large but it accounts for about 35,000 people across Marion county. According to George Washington University, “non-English-speaking communities have long experienced barriers to accessing health care services”. This is beyond a doubt, I have witnessed it first-hand. Now then, the problem is not the lack of availability--the NearWest Clinic stands proof--it is the lack of education. For example, according to migrationpolicy.org, LEP people are about twice as likely as their English-speaking counterparts to live in poverty; however, research shows that they use 39% fewer public assistance benefits that they are eligible for than their U.S.-born counterparts, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts orginization. This means that not only are they more likley to be eligible for aid, they are less likely to take advantage of it.
This problem extends beyond simply healthcare, it is an overarching aspect of a non-English speaker's life in America. This orginization is aimed at propagating information about everything avaible in Indianapolis related to health be it about healthcare, food insecurity and housing insecurity.
I have not found any organization that does something similar to this in the Indianapolis area, and this fact is apparent to me in the clear lack of knowledge among patients I see and the statistics presented. Through this organization, I resolve to change this disparity through education of the hispanic LEP population across the Indianapolis area about what is available to them across various aspects of health.