Summary
During the president Trump administration, immigration enforcement intensified significantly, and there had also been an uptick in antimigration discourse and attitude. In such a setting, there were inaccurate representations of immigrants as drug traffickers and lawbreakers as an avenue of a deliberate narrative aimed at reducing aggregate immigration. That environment had the knock-on effect of increasing the propagation of both anxiety and disinformation. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) guidelines, immigration enforcement normally would not be conducted in critical control points, including healthcare establishments, however, the issue lies right there. To convey the holistic perspective, this case study employed thirty-eight interviews covering five states (California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois) with the highest proportions of unauthorized immigrants (Saadi, 2021). The individuals who participated were determined based on their state, their healthcare establishment’s participation in institutional measures to safeguard and welcome immigrant patients, and their duties in carrying out these particular initiatives.
The wider American community’s psychological and social health is negatively impacted by anti-immigrant policies, which sow discord and divisiveness using derogatory language and selective immigration control. Due to these factors, medical facilities have responded by implementing new procedures and regulations to both accommodate their immigrant patients and safeguard them from immigration authorities while they are receiving medical care. The purpose of this campaign was to contribute to the development of the first comprehensive examination of the breadth of laws and practices that defend and accommodate immigrants in a variety of healthcare environments. The medical facilities in question, were inspired to enact new rules or procedures due to shifts in the health-seeking tendencies of immigrant patients. This case study project illustrates thirteen policies and procedures implemented at three stages in these medical facilities. These levels include the institution level, the provider level, and the patient level. An all-inclusive healthcare structure can be achieved through proper planning, strategic vision, and a coordinated campaign. Such a system can reliably offer services to patients while improving significant health end results and reducing broadening health inequality.
Analysis and Critique
This campaign established the importance of scrutinizing the immigration guidelines and procedures in the USA that address the issues and challenges that immigrant patients encounter while receiving medical attention in healthcare facilities. The objectives were crafted after media reports that widespread immigration enforcement activities, resulting in a decrease in seeking healthcare services amongst immigrants, had been carried out within healthcare establishments. The targeting strategy was appropriate as it broadly encompassed relevant participants and healthcare facilities of different sizes and structures from the five states with the highest likelihood of undocumented immigrants and varied political perspectives. The diversity and variation of the setting represented through this strategy would apply to a variety of healthcare establishments across the country.
The significance of proper health communication lies in the comprehension of its applicability. Health communication is among the techniques for enhancing or promoting health (Arkin, 2009). In this campaign, the healthcare facilities were encouraged to enact new approaches or procedures after a decline in health-seeking efforts from immigrant patients. Several of these establishments acknowledged that clinical measures alone do not always accurately reflect the level of fear felt by immigrant patients and that they had to alternatively rely on collaborations with community-based organizations to learn more about the main attributes of the communities they strived to serve. The communication efforts evident in this case can be described through community organization and diffusion of information theory, among other participatory models (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). These approaches are appropriate as they emphasize community-inspired perspectives in evaluating and addressing social health issues. Authorities and community influencers can work together effectively to reform laws, goods, and services that impede or facilitate people’s behavior.
In relation to increased apprehension and resulting variations in health-seeking patterns among immigrant patients, this campaign proposed thirteen guidelines and procedures to be assumed in healthcare establishments at the institutional, provider, and patient levels. At the institutional level, implementing an internal guideline on how employees should interact with immigration officials and limiting the acquisition and documentation of immigration status in the medical records was proposed. This would not only ease an immigrant patient’s concerns but also discourage unregulated immigration enforcement actions. At the clinician level, the policy of educating and availing immigrant health-oriented training to service providers was proposed. This approach would not only provide the clinicians with up-to-date information, immigration policies, and procedures but also enhance their synchronization in advocacy attempts. At the patient level, the policies of sensitizing the patients to topics relating to their legal rights, encouraging affirming care communication, and seeking medical, legal cooperation were proposed. This would instill an understanding of the law while interacting with immigration enforcement officials in particular, while medical-legal collaborations would enable legal officers and healthcare providers to address outstanding social needs through legal apparatus. Implementation of all of these policies and actions in all healthcare facilities nationwide would not only highlight the success of this campaign but also address the issue of disparity in healthcare provision amongst immigrants. However, a more diverse sample size, including health facilities in at least three-quarters of all the states in the USA, would present a more applicable perspective about the indicated healthcare problem.
References
Arkin, E. B. (2009). Making Health Communication Programs Work (rev). DIANE Publishing.
Saadi, A. (2021). Welcoming and protecting immigrants in healthcare settings: A toolkit developed from a multi-state study. 2020. Doctors for Immigrants. Web.
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Theory at a glance: A guide for health promotion practice. Lulu.com.