Dear Friends,
I was born in Venezuela, the daughter of a military man and a preschool teacher. I got a degree in Special Education and became a teacher, just like my mother. In 2015, I moved to the United States from Venezuela because of political unrest and danger in my home country. When I got here, I knew I was safe, but there were many new challenges I had to overcome.
The one challenge that affected every part of my life was the language barrier. It complicated everything from getting a job to grocery shopping to transportation and health care.
I know firsthand how difficult it is to navigate the healthcare system as an immigrant. When I arrived in the US, I did not know where to go for care and was hesitant to look for a doctor because it would be hard to communicate even if I found one. I also knew I could not afford care because health insurance wasn’t available through my first several employers.
I wish I had known about Siloam Health. If I had, I could have gone to a clinic where I was welcomed and understood and found the support of a community health worker to help me connect to resources.
Now, as a community health worker at Siloam, I’m grateful to help others navigate the health care system. Because Siloam has worked with immigrants like me for more than thirty years, we ensure that uninsurance and cultural and language differences are never barriers to quality health care.
God has always been with me no matter what challenges I faced, and at Siloam, we share that same hope with our patients through health care. Our presence and care for them are a witness to God’s presence and care for them – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
As a member of the Siloam community, you are a part of this living witness! You care for the nations through your time, prayers, and resources. I hope this newsletter gives you a renewed sense of the importance of our shared mission. Thank you for partnering with us so that immigrants and refugees from all over the world can find the care they need at Siloam Health.
Sincerely,
Milexa Hernandez
Community Health Worker
Siloam Health’s mission is to share the love of Christ by serving those in need through health care.
A SAFE PLACE TO SHARE
“Siloam is a place where you can go to not only receive medical treatment, but to also be heard.”
When Juan was three years old, his parents were unable to find adequate health care for him in Guatemala, so they moved to Nashville. They found the care they were looking for at an apartment building housing a small clinic in the Edgehill neighborhood – Siloam Health’s first location.
Although much has changed in the twentyplus years since then, Juan notes that “At its core, Siloam has still maintained the values that made it what it is - a place of understanding, welcoming anyone regardless of their differences, and dedicated to providing the best medical care for anybody who comes through the doors.”
Juan has many stories about the Siloam staff members whom he now considers family, and as he reflects on the importance of medical care, he also notes that “mental health has become something that is very important to me... and I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve had my struggles here and there.”
He explains, “Coming from a Latino background... they’re more about ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps, tough it out,’ and for the longest time, that drove me crazy because I thought I was falling apart.” Eventually, he says, “I came to Siloam and told them I needed help understanding what was going on. Thankfully, Ms. Swift [Siloam Senior Behavioral Health Consultant] was there to listen. She listened to me without any reservation or judgment.”
“It took her a little while to finally get through to me on the importance of seeking a day-today therapist. She gave me so many of those mental health provider lists. Thankfully, I’m way better now than I was back then. At least now I know that it’s a regular thing people go through and it’s perfectly ok.”
Juan sums it up, saying “To me, Siloam is a place where you can go to not only receive medical treatment, but to also be heard. Where you’re accepted. And it’s a place that will hold you up even on your darkest day.”
Siloam patient, Juan, with Senior Behavioral Health Consultant, Rebecca Swift
CARING FOR THE NATIONS
Siloam Health has been caring for members of international communities in Nashville for more than three decades. The diversity of our patients is one of Siloam Health’s hallmarks; it is what sets us apart – even among other faithbased clinics for the underserved.
Why is it important to provide health care for the nations?
The Lord has brought the nations to Siloam.
In the early 1990s, a Vietnamese refugee sought care at Siloam because he had nowhere else to go. Upon finding respectful, quality care at Siloam despite the cultural and language barriers, he went back and shared
that positive experience with other members of his community, leading many refugees from Vietnam to seek out care at Siloam Health. Our earliest patients became our teachers in how to care for people well across cultures, forever changing the fabric of Siloam Health. Now, our staff includes more than a dozen nationalities, and we provide health care for more than 6,500 people each year, 90% of whom were born outside the United States and hailing from more than 80 different countries.
Immigrants and refugees have particular health needs.
3X UNINSURED 12.7%
12.7% of Davidson County residents are uninsured, more than three points higher than the national average of 9.5%*
Many immigrants and refugees have fled violence, oppression, or political unrest in their *US Census Bureau, 2022 ^The Sycamore Institute, 2022
People of Hispanic heritage are three times more likely to be uninsured than other races.^
home countries. These challenging, sometimes painful, experiences can have a lasting impact on their health. Our whole-person approach to health care – which addresses physical, mental, social, and spiritual health – takes all of this into account. Our interdisciplinary clinic staff asks sincere, compassionate questions so that our patients can safely open up about the challenges they have faced, and we can pursue their wholeperson health together.
Cross-cultural care is quality care.
Arriving in a new country can be a disorienting experience. Learning to navigate new systems, a new culture, and a new way of life can be overwhelming and exhausting. By providing cross-cultural care, including bi-lingual staff members and interpreters, we can put our new neighbors at ease, make their transition a little bit easier, and ensure that they have a way to clearly communicate their health needs so we can care for them. Cross-cultural care is integral to providing quality health care.
Immigrants face barriers to health care access.
More than 200,000 people in Middle Tennessee live without health insurance, and 50,000 of those individuals were born outside the United States. Marginalized immigrants and refugees often do the important and unseen work that
DIVERSITY OF SILOAM PATIENTS
Siloam’s patients come from more than 80 countries and speak more than 50 different languages
PRIMARY HOMELAND OF SILOAM PATIENTS
PRIMARY LANGUAGE OF SILOAM PATIENTS
keeps Nashville running. While these jobs are essential, they don’t often come with health insurance. Siloam is here to fill the gap and provide health care for these new neighbors so that they can flourish.
Immigrants make Nashville better.
Because of the contributions of immigrants and refugees, our city continues to thrive –not only economically but also culturally. Without Siloam, many of these neighbors would not have access to health care. We, as an organization, are honored to provide health care for them.
Homeland and primary language data collected in 2023.
MEET SILOAM’S NEW CHIEF
MEDICAL OFFICER
Q&A WITH DR. JULE WEST
1) Tell us about yourself!
I first felt called to work with underserved populations in the developing world in high school and followed this to Wheaton College where my passion for international health justice was solidified with work-study in West Africa. Subsequently, a rotation at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago opened my eyes to social determinants of health in the US including poverty, low-resourced neighborhoods, and historical inequities.
For the last 24 years, I have served the Nashville community as a primary care physician. Most recently, I worked in an academic-community partnership for 11 years at a clinic serving people experiencing homelessness while also providing mentorship for healthcare trainees.
Personally, I’ve been married to my husband, David, for almost 33 years, and we have two adult daughters. I wouldn’t be able to do this work without an encouraging and supportive family.
2) What brought you to Siloam Health?
The opportunity to formally weave my faith into health care is an incredible opportunity. At Siloam, we strive be the hands and feet of Jesus by providing cross-cultural care for patients from many nations but living in Nashville!
Siloam Health is the perfect coalescence of my career and the practice I thought I would have when I initially felt called to serve abroad and then on American soil. The truth is you can go a mile and a half from Vanderbilt and be in a food desert. You don’t need to travel overseas to see health inequities and poverty. It can, in many ways, be more complicated to provide this care stateside where the inequities feel more upfront.
I am excited to bring my experience into a leadership space to support, mentor, and be a resource for the clinical staff.
3) What aspects of Siloam do you want to ensure stay the same?
Opening the clinic each morning with corporate prayer is the first thing that comes to mind because it is so important and grounding. Prayer is a statement of our work posture. We are all asking for God’s help to bless us, bless the patients, bless the day. I would never want to change that.
4) What do you want to do new or differently at Siloam?
I want to continue supporting what Siloam does well. I’m also curious about how we go about our work. Are there opportunities to better serve our patients and support our hardworking teams? Can we care for more patients? Can we offer more services? The needs are so great. I’m still learning and asking questions.
What Siloam does is so unique, and I’m excited to see what else can come for Siloam. What haven’t we thought about? What partnerships can we explore? Are we maximizing our resources internally and externally? Can we creatively broaden our reach?
I’m excited to see what God will do at Siloam.
BACK TO SCHOOL PHYSICALS
Each year, Siloam Health Antioch offers and promotes physicals and immunizations to ensure that underserved children in the community have access to the care they need. It’s a simple, tangible move toward health equity, not to mention a fun way to help these kids get ready for the classroom!
GIVE TO SILOAM HEALTH
Provide health care for the nations by making a one-time gift or becoming a GLOCAL Partner who gives monthly.
