Category: health issues

IRC needs volunteers (but not at this exact moment) to help refugees navigate the US health care system

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I actually started to write another post this morning also involving refugee health care—mental illness again, but it’s a post requiring some bit of additional work, and I’ve run out of steam today.  So just so you know I’m not on an extended break, this is a quick little post I can throw up here without too much work (or, that is what I thought before I launched!).

It is a VOLUNTEER job announcement from probably the biggest of the federal resettlement contractors—the International Rescue Committee (where its head honcho makes more than Obama makes!).*  It is for a VOLUNTEER job, sort of, at some time in the future, but they want your information now.  Hat tip: FeFe

Remember as you read this that the IRC is so concerned about the issue of tracking your VOLUNTEER hours because they turn those into the feds for cash (for them!) in a “match grant” program.  Cool huh!

Here is the ad for Baltimore, MD (I’ve emphasized the things I don’t want you to miss):

Special Needs Health Volunteer
Sector: Health
Location: US – MD – Baltimore
Employee Type: Volunteer
Employee Category: Part Time

Description

Dear perspective volunteer,
Please note that we are not currently seeking volunteers in this position for the time being. Please consider other volunteer or internship opportunities, and be in touch with any questions.
This is an unpaid volunteer position. [in case you haven’t gotten that message yet—ed]

Purpose: Special Needs Health Volunteers are paired up with refugees and asylees who have specific health needs which may inhibit their ability to become self-sufficient in their new environment. Health concerns of clients in this category may include: disabilities, mental illness, pregnancy, severe hypertension, TB, and malnutrition. Health volunteers will provide one-on-one follow-up and counseling in order to help clients navigate the US healthcare system, ensure quality care for the client, and provide basic health education.  [Did you know we are taking TB refugee cases?—ed]

Possible Responsibilities [Does anyone do this for poverty-stricken Americans?—ed]

• Provide consistent follow-up care for special health needs of clients
• Help clients to find health resources which best meet their needs
• As needed, help clients make medical appointments
• As needed, accompany clients to medical appointments
• Ensure clients understand treatment instructions
• As appropriate, provide basic preventative health counseling
• Ensure clients are receiving quality and dignified healthcare

IRC HEALTH VOLUNTEER REQUIREMENTS [Did we mention this was a volunteer job?—ed]

High level of cultural sensitivity
Commitment of at least four months of volunteering, 1-5 hours per week
Agreement to background check and background check fee (no more than $18.50)
Participation in health volunteer orientation and training
Diligence in keeping track of volunteer hours and communication with IRC staff through volunteer time  [The IRC must get its payment from the federal government for YOUR volunteer time.—ed]

IRC HEALTH VOLUNTEER PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Work and/or educational experience in public health, nursing, health services, international health, or other health-related field
Ability to follow-through with long-term, detail-oriented projects

If you are interested, please contactkafiya.ismail@rescue.org.

IRC leading the way from harm to home. [cute, huh!—ed]
IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability.

* Now check it out!  The IRC (which wants your nursing services for free) is a $431 million dollar organization which gets $247 million from YOU, the taxpayer (page 9 of their most recent Form 990, here).  And, guess where you have to go to find out the salaries being paid at the IRC?  Page 254 of their 299-page Form 990.  George Rupp, their head honcho makes a cool $447,432 in salary and benefits which beats Obama’s $400,000 salary!

It’s called doing well by doing good!  Maybe Rupp should be required to handle the TB patients!

No jobs, mental illness plague Iraqi refugees in Dearborn, MI

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Since we are on the subject of immigrants with untreated mental illness (see yesterday’s horrifying story from the Boston Globe), this story from Newsweek about Iraqi refugees struggling in Michigan fits right in.

Although Iraq is now governed by a democratically elected government that we gave them at a very high cost to America in blood and treasure, we are still pouring Iraqi refugees into the US for myriad reasons, but like the first sad tale this article tells, some are hankering for the good old days when Saddam Hussein ran the place.

Here is Mohasen wishing she could return to the days of being a ballet instructor in Iraq.  She says she can’t find a ballet job here in the US and must work menial jobs to make ends meet.  But, the reality is that there isn’t ballet in Iraq now either since the Islamists are running the show (no little girls in skimpy costumes).  Mohasen lamenting the loss of her good life in Iraq:

Mohasen flips through an album full of photographs and looks at pictures of young children in delicate yellow ballerina costumes, leaping around a stage. She recites all 20 of their names—students from years ago—calling them her “butterflies,” which was also the name of their ballet troupe. The pictures are reminders of Mohasen’s former life in Baghdad—a life that she knows she will never have again, so long as she is a refugee in the United States.

Newsweek then tells us that 59,000 Iraqis have arrived in the US since 2007. Actually that is wrong, if you go to WRAPS they have a special category just for Iraqis and Iraqi SIVs.  The numbers are 77,534 refugees plus an additional 8,119 SIVs.

Michigan got 12,000 plus Iraqis since 2007, second only to California with over 19,000 between Iraqi refugees and SIVs in the same time period.  How many of those do you think are on some type of welfare?  I bet it’s nearly 100%.

No jobs, mental problems and prejudice.  Prejudice from fellow Arabs (Newsweek doesn’t say it, but it’s Muslim v. Chaldean Christian prejudice most likely)!    How can that be, only white Americans are supposed to be prejudiced?  Right?

When the last envoy of U.S. troops crossed the border into Kuwait, it marked the end of America’s war in Iraq. Billions of dollars had been spent and thousands of lives lost. But while the U.S. celebrated and welcomed its troops home, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were left with a far different reality—redefining their lives as refugees in unfamiliar countries. Now they’re facing a battle of a different sort: assimilating into mainstream America. The challenges range from job woes and the prejudice of earlier immigrants to serious psychological wounds sustained in war.

“Unwelcoming ” Dearborn makes finding a job harder.  Really?  I thought it was the US job market and Michigan’s job market, mental health problems, and lack of English, etc.   Readers we haven’t had so many stories lately, but for awhile we had almost weekly reports of Iraqi refugees somewhere in the US being unhappy with their new lives in America, some even returned to the Middle East in disgust.  LOL! Type ‘Iraqi refugees unhappy‘ into our search function and see what I mean.   Also, click on our Iraqi Refugee category for literally hundreds of posts (551 to be exact!) on problems with Iraqi refugees.  Somebody should write a book!

Many of the refugees headed to Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest concentration of Arabs, as well as Iraqi expats, in the U.S. According to Hassam Abdulkhaleq, program manager of the psychosocial rehabilitation center at the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS)—one of the largest Arab activist organizations in the country—the first wave of Iraqis arrived in Michigan during the first Gulf War, with a second influx coming at the start of the occupation of Iraq in 2003. Many of the second-wave refugees are Chaldean Christians, who were persecuted along with other religious minorities after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

With the beginning of the war in 2003, resources for the Detroit-area refugee population focused on Iraqis who were particularly vulnerable because of their religious beliefs. Refugees who had settled in the area in years past were not always so welcoming. “There is a blending-in problem,” says Manuel Tancer, a professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University. “And I think it’s a problem with any immigrant.” Tancer counsels victims of torture in the Detroit metropolitan area. “This is an issue when you have people coming to a particular area because they have relatives there. [They are] not always accepted happily and gladly by the people that have been there for a while.”

The unwelcoming environment only made it more difficult for Iraqis to integrate into their new homes. They were seeking acceptance not only from Americans but from the established refugee community as well. The lack of support they received made it that much more difficult for them to find quality work—even if they’d had prosperous careers back in Iraq.

Untreated mental illness is prevalent:

 Like many other Iraqi refugees in the U.S., Mohasen and Fatima’s struggles are exacerbated by past traumas. For most, the war they fled is an ever-present reality. Muntaha Fleful left Iraq after being attacked by a Baghdad militia in 2004. She was resettled in the U.S. in 2008, after being treated for her injuries in Jordan. Now, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and receives treatment from ACCESS’s psychosocial rehab center.

According to Abdulkhaleq, the center’s program manager, PTSD tends to cause nightmares, poor concentration, and extreme anger. He thinks that thousands of refugees are suffering from mental illnesses associated with war, but that only a small percentage receive treatment due to limited resources in the area.

Oh, geez, will Syrians be coming next?   Dearborn residents worry that the diversity-is-beautiful gang in the State Department will soon throw Syrians into the Michigan melting pot!  (that is not how Newsweek says it!):

The Iraqi population in Dearborn has been the focal point for refugee aid over the past 10 years. But now that the Iraq War has ended, that focus seems to be dropping off in favor of newer conflicts, such as the one in Syria. Although the civil war there continues to spiral, the U.S. has yet to aid Syrian refugees. But officials in Dearborn think it is only a matter of time before they see an influx of Syrians in the area, and worry that the spike may overwhelm already strained resources.

Read it all.

Note:  We have already taken the first step in that direction and Obama has granted Temporary Protected Status to Syrians, here.  That means any Syrians who are in the US already for whatever reason (even illegally) are temporary refugees and are given permission to stay and work indefinitely.  (It is supposed to be temporary, but never is!)

Federal grants geared to help older refugees (and contractors!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars!

You know we bring old people into the US along with young working-age refugees.  

And, for some reason every once in awhile up pops some information on federal grants for refugee contractors and in this case for some state government agencies.  Today this list of new grants for services to older refugees showed up in my in-box.  Looks like we just gave out another $3 million in federal grants so that elderly refugees would get “services.”

People ask me all the time:  What is all this costing us?  My answer is who knows!  There are myriad grants like this one with not much information on how the money is to be used, and if you look carefully, it appears the grant involves getting elderly refugees hooked up with state and county welfare programs and the cost of that is never known because no one on the local level tracks whether someone getting welfare is a refugee or not!

I wonder how much office overhead say Catholic Charities can write-off for administering this grant?  How much oversight is there?    Here is what they claim it is used for:

The Services to Older Refugees Program ensures that refugees age 60 and above have access to mainstream aging services in their community. Successful programs:

*Provide appropriate services to all older refugees who are not currently being provided in the community

*Enable older refugees to live independently as long as possible  [I guess we pay for their nursing home eventually—ed]

*Establish and/or expand a working relationship with state and local agencies to ensure refugee access to aging services

*Develop or provide access to naturalization services  [We gotta get ’em voting!—ed]

As part of the Division of Refugee Assistance (DRA), this program provides grants to states and state-alternative programs, public and private non-profit organizations. ORR partners with the U.S. Administration on Aging to identify ways in which the aging and ORR networks can work together more effectively at the state and local levels to improve elderly refugees’ access to services.

Have a look at the Administration for Children and Families executive summary of its budget for FY 2013, here (go to page 13).    It is $805 million for FY2013 (up $37 million) for refugees.  That does not include the State Department’s additional millions for bringing in 50,000 plus refugees a year.  Three million for the old people is a drop in the bucket you might say.  However, remember these “services” do not include the cost of medical care that we are surely providing, and will provide! into their ripe old age.

Endnote:  If you think any of this will change in a Republican administration that we might have in 2013—forget it!  Democrat or Republican President—doesn’t matter. The beat goes on ….. why?  (click here)

ORR official goes to Indiana, there must be problems brewing!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Eskinder Negash, was in Indiana this past week to meet with people involved with the refugee program there.  They want more money, he says there is no more.

We first became aware of Indiana’s problems way back in 2007 when the health department in Ft. Wayne (Allen County) was crying out for federal help because they couldn’t handle all the medical problems (including TB!) that were coming in with the huge influx of Burmese refugees the feds were sending to Indiana.

And, even former Senator Lugar asked the GAO for a study of the program and the refugee overload some communities were facing.   A study was released in July, here.  Who knows, maybe that inspired Negash to get out to Indiana.

From the News-Sentinel:

Eskinder Negash, Office of Refugee Resettlement director, paid a visit Thursday to Indianapolis to meet with Indiana refugee resettlement agencies, local government officials, refugee-serving organizations and community members.

A crowd of several hundred gathered Thursday morning at the Indiana Historical Society, where Negash congratulated the group on serving the Indiana refugee population and applauded their commitment to restoring dignity and freedom to people who had none in their homelands. He spent most of the session taking questions from the crowd.

It quickly became clear there would be no funding increases from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Some people were looking for more assistance with housing. Educators were hoping for more money to fund programs for at-risk refugee students. Negash explained funding from his agency is based on the number of refugees coming into a state.   The total dollar amount it has to work with during a year for the whole country is $15 million.   [He is probably speaking here about some ’emergency’ type funding account, this is a billion dollar program and they spend every bit of it—somewhere?—ed]

This is their standard line!

Negash said refugees should stand on their own and become independent, and that prolonging their dependence on federal aid was not a solution.

Sounds good right?  Well, that isn’t reality.  These are third world people who have little education and virtually no skills. They don’t speak English and they have enormous health needs.   They are not ready to “stand on their own” at 3 months (or 6 months) when the federal contractor’s taxpayer funding runs out.   So guess who is burdened?  The local government!

The Refugee Resettlement Act of 1980 set up this floundering government-funded system.  Prior to that civic groups and churches sponsored refugee families PRIVATELY with PRIVATE CHARITY.  That is what Negash is talking about in the bit below.    These 1,400-1,500 groups he is referring to are FEDERAL CONTRACTORS!  They get taxpayer funding to take care of refugees for a few months!

Since 1980, 3 million refugees have been resettled in the United States. Negash said there are 1,400-1,500 different organizations around the nation working with resettlement refugees. When the United States first began taking refugees in 1975, after the fall of Saigon, there were no resettlement organizations. Negash suggested reconnecting with more church organizations could also help the process, something he believes has fallen off over the years.

No refugee resettlement annual report to Congress for any of the Obama years!

Instead of making public relations trips to overloaded resettlement areas, Eskinder Negash should be doing his job in Washington.  The Office of Refugee Resettlement is supposed to report to Congress each year, within three months of the close of the previous fiscal year, about how the refugee program is doing—how much they are spending, if refugees are getting employment, how much welfare they are using, etc.

There has been no report to Congress for fiscal years 2009, 2010, and 2011!  They are three years behind.  There are only two possible explanations—incompetence or they are hiding something!

Check here periodically to see when they get around to doing their legal requirement of reporting to Congress.

But, you know, it isn’t completely Negash’s fault!  No one in Congress cares or has the guts to look into this lawbreaking!

Colorado: African refugees want to vote for Obama to get (more!) healthcare

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The problem is that many are NOT US citizens and (hopefully!) are NOT voting!

However, if it were up to the  Colorado African Organization(CAO) they would all be signed up!  Before I get to the story in The World from yesterday, keep in mind that the CAO is a mini-ACORN, sometimes called an Ethnic Community Based Organization (ECBO)***.   The basic idea is that they help immigrants of their chosen ethnic group get signed-up for their welfare and at the same time become political ADVOCATES for the “community.”   And, here is the kicker—-YOU are paying for it with your tax dollars!

Here is the story from swing-state Colorado (emphasis mine).  It begins as they all do with a representative sob story:

Doh-Taka (open the link to read her story, if she had her fibroids removed, there should be no limitation on her returning to work—ed) is in a bind many refugees and asylees face – living in a new country without health insurance. [What!  She had health insurance in her old country?—ed] That is slated to change soon. Refugees, as legal immigrants, are eligible for the same protections and benefits as US citizens under the Affordable Care Act. Many of the provisions of the Act take effect in 2014, including a rule that insurance companies cannot deny or charge higher premiums based on pre-existing conditions.

Doh-Taka’s story isn’t unique, nor is it special to immigrants, refugees, or asylees. But navigating the healthcare system is especially difficult for refugees, who often have a superficial understanding of American culture, institutions, and English.

“The Affordable Care Act is going to really help people understand and utilize the healthcare system that’s available for them,” said Kit Taintor, the executive director at the Colorado African Organization, a group that helps African immigrants build new lives.   [Here the reader is led to believe that the CAO is just a friendly struggling non-profit out to help the poor and downtrodden—ed]

Obamacare will streamline their health care (don’t believe it for a minute!).

Right now, Taintor said healthcare for refugees is a “cumbersome” process.

“For the first 90 days they get refugee medical assistance, and then they switch over to Medicaid, which requires recertification of forms and filling out all of these things. So they tend to let Medicaid lapse, even if they’re eligible for it. So I think that what this (The Affordable Care Act) is going to allow is for people to really extend what they think healthcare is and how it can support them and their families.”

We want Obama because we want our health care (which we just learned that they already have through Medicaid):

The African refugees I met in Denver didn’t have the greatest understanding of the nuances of healthcare reform, but all strongly support it. And from my totally unscientific polling, nearly all support President Obama. In Colorado, there are an estimated 35,000 African immigrants and refugees; precise data aren’t available. In a tightly contested election, could this small group like this give the president enough votes to take the state?

“I doubt that’s a large enough community to make a really substantial impact on the election,” said Seth Masket, an associate professor of political science at the University of Denver. “But given how close this election is likely to be, almost any constituency of any size could end up being pivotal.”

One problem for the president: Those still legally classified as refugees, by definition, can’t vote.

The ones I met were all striving to improve their English and study for the citizenship exam so they could become citizens. I asked Ismail Ahmed, a refugee from Sudan, why he wants to vote. His English was pretty basic: “Healthcare, I like that.”

So, now what do we know about the Colorado African Organization?

In a free country there is no problem with non-profits forming to help “their people.”   However, you need to know that taxpayers are the majority contributors to this organization and that “advocacy” is a large part of what they do—including getting Africans registered to vote!

So, now have a look at their most recent IRS Form 990.   Page 9 is the important page where we can see their revenue for that year.  Note that they took in $607,125.   And, of that $497,205 comes from you as government grants!  They couldn’t exist without 82% of their funds coming from taxpayers!

Another $22,252 was service revenue which probably included government contracts.  That leaves a paltry $87,668 that came from private donations from places probably like the Tides Foundation and other left-leaning foundations and companies (which are looking for cheap labor!).

So, just like the now discredited giant, ACORN, they use taxpayer money and advocate for leftwing issues and politicians (and register voters in election year!).   It is “community organizing” with an ethnic twist!

*** We have a category on ECBOs .  I haven’t written many posts there recently, but it’s worth having a look at.

New readers might also want to visit our “health issues” category to see the many health problems associated with refugees entering the US from third world countries.   Be sure to see the post from September about the cases of TB we are admitting to the US.  A little surgery for fibroids is nothing compared to what that TB treatment is going to cost our healthcare system!