Times Standard (Eureka)

BARRIERS TO CARE

Why Humboldt’s Latinx population is being hit disproport­ionately hard by COVID-19

- By Iridian Casarez Community Voices Coalition

Standing in Eureka’s La Pasadita Market on a recent afternoon, Isabel Ortiz says she’s had a hard time getting informatio­n on COVID-19, how to prevent its spread and what to do if she or someone she knows starts experienci­ng symptoms. Ortiz, who works at the market, only speaks Spanish and most of the COVID-19 informatio­n she’s seen has been in English. She says it would be a good idea for local officials to translate important informatio­n for those in the Latinx and Hispanic communitie­s who don’t speak English.

She says she’d been planning to go to Eureka City Hall to ask for some but hadn’t had the chance yet.

But even if Ortiz had made it there, she wouldn’t have found much in Spanish, as City Clerk Pam Powell says the city just sends folks looking for COVID-19 informatio­n to Humboldt County Public Health’s website, adding that the department also has interprete­rs on staff who could help people find informatio­n.

Officials believe stories like Ortiz’s may help explain why at least 22 percent of local confirmed COVID-19 cases have been found in Latinx and Hispanic

community members, even though they make up just 12.2 percent of the local population. Humboldt County’s white residents, meanwhile, account for 83 percent of the population but just 44.3 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

In a recorded Q&A with the local media late last month after Humboldt County first released COVID-19 case data broken down by ethnicity and race, Health Officer Teresa Frankovich said the disparity is not lost on officials.

“Locally, the most dominant effect is a disproport­ionate amount of cases in our Latinx community and to that issue we have been really trying to work on outreach to the community,” Frankovich said. “Obviously, there may be language barriers and so we’re really trying to address that, and really trying to get informatio­n out so that people are aware of what precaution­s need to be taken and what they can do if they become ill.”

But Frankovich’s message might not be getting through to those in most urgent need of the informatio­n.

Engelberto Cejeda, who owns El Pueblo Panaderia, says that the problem is that there aren’t any places he can find Frankovich’s media availabili­ties trans

lated in Spanish, or even an outlet that’s a clear channel for translated COVID-19 informatio­n.

“I turn on the television and try to watch the local news, but I can’t understand,” Cejeda says. “It would be nice to see [Frankovich’s reports] translated into Spanish. It doesn’t have to be everyday. It can just be on weekends.”

According to Meriah Miracle, who supervises Humboldt’s COVID-19 informatio­n call center, the county has two Spanish speaking representa­tives available every hour that the call center is open, adding that these representa­tives help translate frequently asked questions and walk callers through informatio­n on the Humboldt County homepage to find translated fliers that can be shared on social media. These interprete­rs also work with Public Health on contact investigat­ions involving Spanish-speaking residents, she says.

The Latinx and Hispanic communitie­s aren’t the only ones locally who face a language barrier. According to the U.S. Census, 11.8 percent of Humboldt County households speak a language other than English at home, including 6.8 percent that are Spanishspe­aking households. According to the Humboldt County Office of Education, 2,000 of Humboldt County’s approximat­ely 16,000 K-12 students come from households where English is not spoken at home. Recognizin­g the informatio­n gap, a group of Lao and Hmong volunteers translated COVID-19 fliers and fact sheets from Public Health and included paper copies in a massive food distributi­on effort to those communitie­s in May.

Humboldt County is far from unique in seeing case disparitie­s. Statewide, Latinx and Hispanic people account for 55 percent of COVID-19 cases, while only making up 39 percent of the state’s population. Nationally, they account for 33.5 percent of cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control, but just 18.5 percent of the population. Additional­ly, data indicates they disproport­ionately face critical outcomes and death as a result of the disease. The data is also limited to people who self-reported race or ethnic informatio­n on a questionna­ire at the time of testing, which, in Humboldt County, 40 percent of positive cases did not, according to Miracle.

Nonetheles­s, there is ample evidence large disparitie­s exist and a language barrier is only one possible reason, according to Caterina Kein, program supervisor for Paso a Paso, which is run through St. Joseph Health and offers support services to the county’s Latinx and Hispanic population­s.

“When we’re looking at those who are disproport­ionately affected by COVID, then we also know that there are underlying health conditions,” Kein says. “And not just physical health, but also mental health and whole health, as well — housing stability, economic health and access to care are all variables that make people more vulnerable to essentiall­y contractin­g COVID.”

In Humboldt County, Latinx and Hispanic households are more likely to live below the poverty line than their white counterpar­ts, and half as likely to own a single-family home. And while Hispanic and Latinx workers make up 12.7 percent of the local labor force, according to the American Community Survey, they disproport­ionately fill the types of service sector jobs that can lead to more COVID-19 exposure and were hardest hit by initial layoffs.

“With the decline of service industry jobs, we are looking at additional financial, economic and housing barriers to families that may not be able to access state and federal benefits or safety net programs due to their documentat­ion status,” Kein says.

And the disease and reverberat­ing impacts have only exacerbate­d existing inequities, as Kein notes that some of the families her program serves are “mixed-status” families — families that have documented and “questionab­ly documented” people in their households — and thus may have been left out of the federal stimulus funding measures and don’t receive other benefits.

The economic disparitie­s only serve to widen the informatio­n gap, Kein says, explaining that barriers that existed before the pandemic are now enhanced. She says some of the more rural Latinx population­s don’t have access to broadband internet and are dependent on pre-paid data cell phones, meaning some have to choose between staying in touch with families or researchin­g health and safety informatio­n.

Across all demographi­cs, 19 percent of Humboldt County residents don’t have internet at home and 10 percent don’t have a computer, according to the Census, rendering simple selfdiagno­stic COVID-19 tools and other crucial informatio­n inaccessib­le.

Paso a Paso’s bilingual staff — which for 20 years has worked to provide childbirth education, breastfeed­ing support, parenting classes, home visits, resources referrals and support groups — is keeping up with its participan­ts to brief them on developing COVID-19 informatio­n through phone calls, text messages, Zoom classes and doorstep dropoffs. However, that effort only extends to program participan­ts, which total 4,212 to date this year.

The program is also helping its participan­ts obtain personal protective equipment, teaching about health and safety precaution­s, and how to navigate the new tele-health doctor visits. Some clients who are homebound due to job losses or illnesses get assistance with grocery runs for necessitie­s like food and household items.

Like Paso a Paso, Open Door Community Health Centers — the largest local healthcare provider — is working to get informatio­n to the Spanish speaking community.

Open Door’s Latino Health Coordinati­on Program has dedicated staff in Humboldt and Del Norte counties who work to develop relationsh­ips in the

Latinx communitie­s, CEO Tory Starr said in an email.

Starr said the health system uses a Promotores de Salud model for patient connection, which sees Spanish-speaking staff offer Spanish speakers a swath of services, from translatio­n to health education. Additional­ly, Starr said Open Door is collaborat­ing with St. Joseph Hospital and area nonprofits to try to ensure Spanishspe­aking patients have all the help they need to access educationa­l materials, testing, community resources and coordinate­d care, as well as to participat­e fully in Public Health contact tracing efforts.

Jennifer Judge, Open Door’s member services programs manager, said the clinic’s partnershi­p with Public Health also makes it so Open Door’s staff can help Spanish speakers who have tested positive for COVID-19 with whatever they need for care coordinati­on and recovery. For example, if they don’t have health insurance, Open Door staff helps them obtain it. Starr said it’s simply vital for Open Door staff to be as connected as possible to provide Latino patients, as well as the broader community, with services that are “culturally and linguistic­ally appropriat­e.”

The Community Voices Coalition is a project funded by Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation to support local journalism. This story was produced by the North Coast Journal newsroom with full editorial independen­ce and control.

 ?? SUBMITTED TO COMMUNITY VOICES COALITION ?? A Paso a Paso vehicle loaded with produce and ready to make the delivery rounds to its local Latinx and Hispanic clients.
SUBMITTED TO COMMUNITY VOICES COALITION A Paso a Paso vehicle loaded with produce and ready to make the delivery rounds to its local Latinx and Hispanic clients.

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