Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Local university and medical students are partnering to help people who may only or mostly speak Spanish overcome language barriers to getting health care during a free, bilingual clinic on Saturday.
Wright State University’s Latino Center is partnering with the Latino Medical Student Association in the Boonshoft School of Medicine, the College of Health, Education and Human Services and the El Puente Learning Center to provide free bilingual mobile health clinics for area Latino communities.
The Latino Wellness Clinic also helps Latino medical students serve the local Latino community more directly. A burgeoning Latino population in the area faces many stigmas and language barriers in everyday life, including that of health care and wellness, the Latino Center said.
“Many of our Latino medical students were inspired to become doctors based on their own experience growing up and having to translate for family members and doctors at a young age,” said Catherine Hernandez Hogan, assistant director of the Latino Center.
Last year, Sade Fayiga, a second-year student in the Boonshoft School of Medicine from Miami, shared with Hernandez-Hogan a bilingual mobile health clinic model she experienced at the University of Miami, setting the stage for the establishment of the health clinics.
The upcoming clinic’s primary focus is on increasing access to health care for the underserved Hispanic/Latino population in East and Old North Dayton, Hernandez Hogan said.
