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(l-r) Andrea Bradley, President and CEO of Palm Healthcare Foundation; Laura Kallus, Executive Director of Caridad Center; and John Lacy, Chair of Palm Healthcare Foundation. Photo credit: Jim Fairman.
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Palm Healthcare Foundation has awarded $100,000 to Caridad Center, Boynton Beach, to improve health services for the growing number of Haitians who are seeking medical care at the center. The face of Palm Beach County has changed in recent years and with this grant, Palm Healthcare Foundation is proactively responding to the populations’ new health needs.
The number of Haitians residing in Palm Beach County swelled in 2010 after the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Currently Palm Beach County is home to 59,463 Haitian residents. Although many of these individuals have been granted temporary protective status allowing them to live and work in Palm Beach County, they do not qualify for healthcare services. “Part of Palm Healthcare Foundation’s mission is to fund programs that help our most vulnerable populations receive health services. We are thrilled to support this program that will help Haitians residing here communicate with healthcare providers to receive good, culturally competent care,” stated Andrea Bradley, President and CEO of Palm Healthcare Foundation.
The grant from Palm Healthcare Foundation initiates a $400,000 program that Caridad Center plans to implement to assist the Haitian population seeking health services. For the last two decades, the Center has been working to meet the medical needs of the uninsured, working poor in Palm Beach County.
The grant will:
• Initiate home visits to Haitian patients by a Creole-speaking LPN/case manager who will assess, analyze and document the needs of the families visited
• Expedite patient visits through improved Creole services at the front desk, additional Creole interpreters and Creole speaking health navigators
• Increase interpreters for improved health outcomes
• Provide health navigation services
• Expand participation in Haitian community settings for screening for chronic disease screening
• Expand enrollment of Haitian clients in health education workshops and classes offered through Caridad’s Prevention, Education and Treatment (PET) program
