First Stop For Refugees In Arizona: The Maricopa County Refugee Clinic
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In recent weeks, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said he wanted to put a stop to all refugee placements in the state. That action is still pending, so refugees continue to be resettled here. And one very important step that every refugee must go through is a preventative health screening at one of the state’s two refugee clinics.
At the Maricopa County TB and refugee clinic, there are filing cabinets filled with documents translated into more than a dozen different languages. The man responsible for that is the clinic’s program manager, Angelito Bravo. His job is to make sure the nearly 3,000 refugees who come through the clinic’s doors each year are properly screened.
"The country of birth for most of the refugees are mainly from Iraq, Congo, Somali, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Cuba," Bravo said.
Refugees must receive a health screen within 30 days of their arrival. Voluntary agencies like Catholic Charities or the International Rescue Committee, which help resettle refugees, work with Bravo and his team to complete the screenings.
"We test them for TB, STDs, for HIV, for Hep B and for children we check them for lead," he said.
They also provide childhood vaccines and perform a mental health screens. The entire process requires two trips to the clinic: one for blood work and x-rays, another for the results. A critical part of Bravo’s job is ensuring he has translators available. He uses in-house translators as well as a phone service called Language Line. But occasionally, there are hurdles.
"The language is called Rohingya, its like a Burmese dialect," Bravo said. "Unfortunately Language Line didn’t have Rohingya so I had to work with our procurement department and find an agency or company or vendor that had Rohingya translator."
The resettlement process is complex and can take years. For a refugee, getting to this point is a victory.
Marilyn Mendez Marcelo arrived from Havana, Cuba in September. She says she came here in hopes of a better future, not only for herself but her family, who she hopes will join her.
As the debate over the fate of refugees continues, so does the work that goes on at this clinic. A county spokesperson says the number of refugees scheduled for screening through 2015 remains steady.
