BARRIERS TO HEALTH
CARE
Hispanics in South Carolina face
many barriers to health care, which include language, lack of
transportation, geographic inaccessibility, and financial constraints.
Similarly, substance abuse, other health risk behaviors (e.g.
smoking, dietary practices), and the occupational hazards of migrant
work add to the risk of disability and chronic illness.
Linguistic/Cultural
Barriers
Health belief systems and attitudes
toward provider-patient relationships are significant factors
in predicting a Hispanic consumer’s successful health care
experience.
The Hispanic population in South
Carolina has rapidly surpassed the public health care system’s
preparedness to adequately serve these health care consumers.
The critical shortage of bilingual and bicultural health care
providers as well as a critical shortage of trained interpreters
requires collaborative solutions in addressing this problem. The
targeting of three rural counties combined with the Hispanic growth
in South Carolina’s rural areas make the experiences and
lessons learned by this project applicable across the state and
to other rural areas throughout the United States·
The Consumer:
Hispanics are disproportionately affected by certain health problems.
NOTE:
Language differences, lack of access to health care, and limited
knowledge of service, among other things, prevent adequate and
early identification of disabilities and serious illness, exacerbating
the problem faced by Hispanic families.
· The Provider: Besides
language barriers, difficulties with Hispanic patient compliance
can be traced to culturally determined concepts of illness and
treatment. In other words, misuse, non-use, and underuse of health
care facilities is not merely a question of access; communication
between provider and consumer is much more than language proficiency.
