The growing number of minority residents in suburban Maryland is creating new health care concerns that require expanding programs and services, according to a report released Friday by Adventist HealthCare’s Center on Health Disparities.
The report, “Partnering Toward a Healthier Future,” says Montgomery, Prince George’s and Frederick County leaders should take note that increases in African-American, Latino and Asian-American residents in the tri-county area are posing new health care issues for medical providers. According to the study, challenges include language barriers between patients and the providers, lack of access to care, immigrants who don’t trust the American medical system or Western medicine, and some ethnic groups who use herbal remedies that are often misunderstood by health care providers.
“There are deep and too-often overlooked holes in our health-care fabric,” William G. “Bill” Robertson, president and CEO of Adventist HealthCare said in a statement. “All of us need to understand the wealth of diversity that exists in our communities, the different health beliefs and health-seeking behaviors practiced and how trust is built between patients and medical providers.”
The report also found disparities in diseases and death rates by ethnicity: Infant mortality rates for African-Americans is twice that of whites in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties; non-elderly Latinos are the most likely people to be uninsured in Maryland, Asian-American women have the highest rates of mortality from cervical cancer in Maryland; and African-Americans have higher mortality rates from strokes across the state.
The report says health organizations, community groups and government agencies must all work together to eliminate the cultural barriers affecting health care in the region.
According to census data, in Montgomery County alone, there has been a dramatic increase in the percentage of foreign-born residents. In 1990, 18.6 percent of the county’s population was foreign-born, according to census data. By 2006, 29.3 percent of county residents had been born in other countries.
Montgomery Council Member George Leventhal, chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee, said the changing demographics are having a definite impact on the county’s health care system.
“We have three minority health initiatives that try to be highly culturally competent in addressing the language barriers, cultural barriers and lack of medical literacy that are specific to [Asian, Latino and African-American] demographic groups,” Leventhal said.
“This is not your father’s Montgomery County. If anybody thinks we are still a rich, white suburban county where people ride polo ponies – that is just not where we live anymore.”
