Check out the March RIM Newsletter here.

“Solving Critical Community Health Needs”

That’s what Bexar County Health Collaborative strives to do every day. The Health Collaborative began informally in 1997 when the city’s major healthcare organizations agreed to put aside their competitive business practices to conduct a comprehensive health needs assessment. Since then, it has developed and grown into something truly inspirational. NACCHO had the opportunity to sit down with Jordan Mcilveen, Director of the COVID Response Team of Bexar County Health Collaborative, to learn more about their essential work.

“Through ongoing pop-up clinic work with NISD in 2022, we encountered a growing number of Afghan families coming for vaccines,” said Mcilveen. “Seeing this need, we teamed up with Razakaar, a Non-Profit Organization based in San Antonio, to launch a Mothers x Mothers conversation group- essentially health education in the home for a small group of Afghan mothers, with a focus on preparing for the COVID vaccine.”

After the first few convenings of the Mothers x Mothers group, they began to offer pop-up vaccine clinics in the apartment in which the convening was held.

After seeing the success of the Mothers to Mothers group, the Health Collaborative experimented with convening fathers as well. This group gave the fathers the opportunity to discuss the healthcare services they were utilizing. This also gave the Health Collaborative an idea of how to best serve these communities.

“A pressing issue these individuals face is the ability to attain successful and consistent access to medical care. The barriers to accessing healthcare are multifactorial for many Afghan families - there are financial and transportation limitations, cultural differences, and language constraints – among others,” said Mcilveen. These barriers make it incredibly hard for this community to get consistent health care. Because they don’t often have one healthcare provider, it’s hard to keep medical records organized. The Health Collaborative makes this one of their goals as they look up records beforehand to expedite the process. Another adaptation they made is scheduling appointments for their clinics to avoid having these families wait long periods of time to get the care they need.

Bexar County Health Collaborative has made and continues to make an invaluable difference in the lives of refugees, immigrants, and migrants in Bexar County. To learn more about their organization, check out their website.