The KUNR news team recently reported on the physical and mental trauma one Syrian family endured while escaping their war-torn country. In part two of this story, Reno Public Radio’s Anh Gray reports that while federal benefits like Medicaid can help refugees with basic health care, their more complex medical issues can be left untreated.
Zakaria Mustafa, along with his wife Nibhar and their toddler son Rahjad, resettled in Reno two months ago. The nonprofit Northern Nevada International Center, or NNIC, helped with the transition.
Meryem Baayoud is a volunteer translator with the agency. Baayoud says Zakaria was in line to get bread in the Syrian city of Aleppo several years ago when he was injured in a bomb attack.
“He said he became another Zakaria, the disabled one, not the same person that he was before,” Baayoud translates for him.
Shrapnel pierced his body, wounding his left arm and leaving bone fragments from his jaw in his gums.
Although he did get to a hospital, he didn’t get the surgeries he needed.
Both he and his wife, Nibhar, are still overcoming the trauma of living through a war and plan to seek out therapy.
“They were having nightmares a lot,” Baayoud explains that the couple remain traumatized by the memories of the war in Syria. “But they start trying not to think about them, they start trying to forget.”
Zakaria tries to remain optimistic. He’s taking classes to learn English and hopes to land a job soon. Right now, he’s on Medicaid, but he’s not able to find a provider yet to help with his more severe medical issues.
Carina Black heads up the Northern Nevada International Center.
“I think the biggest issue we’re seeing is finding specialists who accept Medicaid,” Black says about the difficulties of helping refugees gain access to health care.
Along with her team, she’s busy helping refugees carve out a new existence and solving unexpected problems that pop up. She’d like to see Zakaria get medical care for his arm and to find him an oral surgeon.
“I’ve reached out to the Nevada Dental Association to see whether they have any leads of somebody who accepts Medicaid or somebody who would be doing it pro bono,” Black says. “We’re in the process of a lot of these specialized medical needs that we have, and we’re just truly at the beginning of finding those solutions.”
NNIC has helped resettle about half-a-dozen families coming from Syria and the Republic of Congo. There are two case managers, and both are assigned to work directly with one of the families.
“The initial period is very critical so we have to do a lot of different types of services as soon as the family gets off the ground,” Black explains, “because the goal of refugee resettlement is self-sufficiency as quickly as possible.”
When they first arrive in the U.S., they receive short-term health insurance called Refugee Medical Assistance. But it’s only available for up to eight months. Some are eligible for Medicaid for several years, but not all medical providers accept Medicaid.
Northern Nevada HOPES is one place that does. HOPES is a Federally Qualified Health Center, or FQHC, a designated community health facility, providing primary care and mental health services to underserved communities.
Malynda Calkins is a physician assistant at HOPES and has taken care of some of the new refugees moving to the region.
“I just try to make them feel as welcome as possible and to let them know that I was so very glad that they were here,” Calkins says, “and that we were going to take good care of them just like we would do with all of our patients.”
Calkins says refugees face many obstacles including the high-cost of care, language barriers, and finding specialists for complex medical problems. She says getting care in general can be an intimidating experience.
“It’s scary enough when you speak the language and you know people and you know how to navigate a health care system,” Calkins explains, “but when you take all that away from a person, they don’t’ know how to get what they need.”
Learning to navigate the health care system is one of many adjustments refugees will have to make.
And Zakaria Mustafa is doing what he can to help other families find their way. Another Syrian family just arrived in Reno a few weeks ago. Welcoming them has lifted Zakaria’s spirit. He says he felt a sense of pride showing off downtown to the new family and taking them shopping at Walmart for essentials.
“Yeah, he calls himself Abu shabab, that means that I am the leader here,” Baayoud translates for Zakaria. “Because he was the first one coming here, and he feels more confident now because they come and they don’t know anything yet.”
He hopes to start rebuilding a sense of community for all of them.
Around the world, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are about 65 million displaced from their homes as a result of conflict or persecution. That’s an unprecedented number.
The U.S. has committed to taking in 110 thousand refugees in 2017. About 75 families are set to make Northern Nevada their new home.
This is the second of a two-part series. Click here for part one of the story.
