UW News

February 23, 1999

Harborview’s House Calls program cited

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation have cited Harborview’s Community House Calls for the way the project “addresses the gap in cultural practices between individual providers and institutions, on the one hand, and immigrants, on the other hand, in a unique and successful way.”

The Harborview program is highlighted in “Opening Doors: Reducing Sociocultural Barriers to Health Care,” a report on projects that identify and break down non financial, culturally based barriers to health care.

The article cites the roles of community advisers, interpreter-cultural mediators, outreach workers and hospital interpreters in helping Asian and East African families receive care at Harborview.

The Community House Calls program began in 1994 with the goal of decreasing sociocultural barriers to health care for non-English-speaking ethnic populations receiving care at Harborview. The program has received awards from the American Public Hospital Association, the Foster McGaw Foundation, and the Ambulatory Pediatric Association.