“I’m sorry, but we’re unable to accept this patient into the program right now due to a shortage of Spanish-speaking workers.”

I have lost count of the number of times I’ve had to say this statement to the various referral sources that call me daily, requesting services for immigrant patients.

Jane is a single parent from Guyana. She traveled to New York to visit family with her daughter, who was six years old at the time. Her daughter got sick, rapidly deteriorating. Jane found herself having to schedule multiple tests for her daughter until they got a diagnosis of a brain tumor, paralysis, and a seizure disorder. When we received the referral, the daughter had turned 13 years old with a complex medical history. She had been redirected to several different medical professionals either due to a language barrier or because of insurance issues, causing Jane to be distrustful and guarded and, most recently, hesitant to start the recommended treatment plan.

Jane had never received any support and is a single parent with minimal family involvement. She is overwhelmed, anxious and frustrated. The referral was received to help Jane better negotiate multiple medical appointments, cope, and adjust to her daughter’s medical needs. It took Jane years of exploring the health care system and learning to speak English before she could even begin understanding the services she and her daughter could be entitled to.

During my initial conversation with her, she expressed how she truly feels no one cared enough to help her understand available health care services or any other services in the community that would have helped provide her daughter with her overall progress.

Jane, who has been identified by a false name to honor confidentiality, is one among many parents of children who want to be effectively connected to a team that provides comprehensive care for their child. This includes mental health services, social work services, a well-connected medical team, and recreational activities in the community.

Mary, again identified by a false name, is another client who has been transferred from hospital to hospital and social work program to program due to issues with her family’s insurance. She is yet another parent with a child who has several medical complexities. They traveled to New York for better medical care than they could receive in the Dominican Republic.

These are just a few examples of a much larger problem. In the past year, medical centers across New York City have received more than 50,000 visits from undocumented migrants seeking medical care, according to data from New York City Health + Hospitals, which operates the city’s public hospitals and clinics. Health care professionals across the board find this to be the most difficult work they’ve done in years. Yet, this is the most impactful work we’ve seen in a long time. Intake programs like New York Health + Hospitals Arrival Center have helped provide a one-step program to connect the incoming migrant population to many services. it would benefit the migrant population as well as the state to introduce more programs that are similar.

The trauma levels of migrants are far greater than those of local patients. Health care professionals could have a greater impact if we could hire more bi-lingual workers to make it easier for the migrant population to express their medical needs and understand what services they can be connected to.

Although hospitals and agencies across New York are proud of their work, we have struggled to handle the incursion of international migrants who have arrived in the city since 2022, mainly seeking refuge and comprehensive medical care.

We can create the ability to build a system that treats migrants with integrity and a keen interest in providing them with comprehensive health care. Every moment we waste means more migrants seeking the care they require, but unable to acquire it due to insufficient professionals –  all due to the lack of adequate funding and proper delegation from the government.

New York should be one of the first places in the country to lead continuous health-care initiatives. We have signed legislation protecting New Yorkers from medical debt, which disproportionately impacts low-income Black and brown people in the state. We can only hope to continue this initiative’s efforts in meeting the needs of this migrant population by employing more health care workers, especially bilingual ones, and compensating them fairly.

Stephanie Dominic Berchmans is a social worker.