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Building Alliances For a Healthier Community

A Mexican consulate is coming to Oklahoma City to aid our blossoming Hispanic community. Last month, Executive Director of Community Services Carol Martin welcomed Consul Edurne Pineda to our Britton clinic to discuss services and programs offered through Variety Care.

Pineda says that along with documentation assistance, her office plans to help Mexican citizens navigate education, finances, and health care in the United States. “We want to educate, we want to provide information to our community so they can protect themselves and be better members of their communities,” she said.

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The meeting opened a doorway for future collaborations between the organizations. “The barriers with health care that a lot of people have, we try to break those down and make it accessible,” Martin said. Her sentiments were echoed by Pineda’s vision for the Consulate to provide Mexican citizens with the tools needed to discover their options for healthcare.

Martin explained to Pineda that Variety Care prides itself on providing quality care to all members of the community – regardless of insurance or citizenship status. She emphasized that one aspect of making care accessible is ensuring Variety Care has as many services and resources as possible to wrap around its patients so they don’t have to navigate it alone.

Additionally, Martin told Pineda that Variety Care has bilingual staff and translators at each location because nearly 60% of our patients are Spanish speaking. “Many of them can speak English, but Spanish is the preferred, so we try to, in each of our health centers, try to mirror what the community looks like,” Martin said.

Pineda said health care is one of her top priorities as Consul. “If they do not have access to preventive care they end up in the ER, which is much more expensive - not only because of the medical treatment but because you're going to lose a really good worker,” she explained. “It really is a social issue.”

Oklahoma City will become home to the 51st Mexican consulate in the United States. Pineda said she anticipates her office opening this spring, with an estimated flow of 200-300 visitors per day.

Bernie Calvin

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