How Black immigrant women are solving America's accessible health care crisis

In the United States approximately 15% Asian-Americans have no health insurance and have had a difficulty understanding the options available in the Affordable Care Act. Although the White House has reached out to Asian-Americans in video chats, the state and community forums for Asian Americans have proved to be the most successful. Interpreter teams help Asian-Americans with the paperwork and understanding the policies.

Necesito Abortar is a group of 20 “acompañantes” (companions) who provide support and education throughout the abortion process. The group provides counseling, in-person and virtual accompaniment and follow-up care for people seeking at-home abortions. The group also works to take care of its volunteers by hosting annual meetings for volunteers to connect, and encouraging them to make time for self care.

La Sala is a community center that provides harm reduction services to those in need. People can come in to exchange used needles for clean ones and other supplies to make drug use safer. The Center also provides naloxone and testing for HIV and other diseases, all for free. The Center reopened in mid-2019 and has had about 1,900 visits since then.

Insurance provider GreenShield, in collaboration with university insurance broker Studentcare, provides lifetime coverage of up to $10,000 for gender-affirming care procedures not covered by provincial health insurance. This insurance benefit provides care to more than 200,000 university students across 20 participating schools in the country.

Toronto’s Vaccine Engagement Teams Grant has awarded $5.5 million to community organizations in 140 neighborhoods to hire and train local ambassadors for vaccine outreach. Because the ambassadors share a lived experience with the communities, they can effectively identify the barriers people face. The on-the-ground effort includes sharing information, advocating for community needs, and helping people access services. The outreach focuses on people often overlooked by government services, such as unhoused people and people who do not speak English or have precarious immigration status.

Community health workers are stepping in to deliver essential healthcare services where conflict has destroyed local health facilities. These locally-trusted health workers conduct door-to-door visits to provide immunizations, screen children for malnutrition, refer emergency care and offer mental health support to those who need it, bridging gaps where traditional services can’t operate.

Traditional birth attendants provide maternal care to women in hard to reach areas. With government help through the Mama2Mama program, several TBAs are undergoing training to provide safer, more effective maternal care.

King County, Washington, is building an alternative mental health care system to avoid escalating unnecessary 911 calls and including law enforcement when it’s not necessarily needed. The County created a mental health-focused response team in collaboration with the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline to divert calls that don’t pose a safety risk and help de-escalate situations. The communications center that fields most of the calls says they get about 20 transfers to the 988 line each month.

The Abiye Project registered over 20,000 pregnant women using a community-based model to ensure they receive proper healthcare. The program connected women with trained health rangers who served as liaisons with traditional birth attendants (TBAs). When TBAs’ resistance stalled the program, the government introduced financial incentives, paying them for each patient referral, leading to more hospital births and a reduced child and maternal mortality rate.

After sudden U.S. government funding cuts jeopardized South Africa's HIV programs, Limpopo's Hlokomela Clinic quickly reorganized around existing resources, training community health workers to identify and encourage farm workers to visit still-operational clinic sites for HIV testing. By leveraging volunteers, they partially offset the impact of losing their dedicated HIV testing outreach team and program funding.