Rochester event showcases healthcare help available to asylum seekers — and everyone else

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Getting an appointment with a doctor or other health care professional is hard enough these days.

Imagine trying to navigate the system as an asylum seeker who just arrived in Rochester.

A special event today aimed to help everyone in the area — including our newest neighbors.

Help when and where you need it, no matter what. That’s what Jocelyn Jaurides hopes the takeaway will be for newly arrived asylum seekers after Wednesday’s Celebrating Health Centers event in International Plaza, organized by Rochester Regional Health.

“A lot of people need the care, that they don’t take of themselves. And it’s good for them to know what is out in the community. People that come to the United States. they don’t know what a lot about what is going on in the community,” Jaurides said.

Jaurides added: “There’s helpful people that we know that we trust that can take us to the right path.”

Angelica Perez-Delgado, president of the Ibero-American Action League, spent the afternoon handing out information and collecting donations for asylum seekers.

“It’s important that they know the services are available, for a couple of things — so that they feel included in our community and also so they can have the appropriate access to healthcare. especially with the migrants we just received. they’ve experienced a lot of trauma,” Perez-Delgado said.

Perez-Delgado says one of the many challenges asylum seekers face is finding out where to find health care services available to them.

“Sometimes people are eligible for care management services and they just don’t know it. Also contact your primary care doctor. There are also other agencies that do a great job as well like providing transportation,” she said.

These are services that moms like Melissa Sandoval hope Rochester’s newest residents find out about and take advantage of in the coming months.

“For anybody who is just arriving and trying to really set themselves up and sort out and set up services, this is a great all-in-one place to set themselves up and help their overall livelihood,” Sandoval said.

Rochester Regional Health plans on hosting more health-services events in the future.

Perez-Delgado says multiple agencies are stepping up to the plate and partnering with Finger Lakes Health Care System to provide physicals and other immediate health care needs for families at the Holiday Inn in downtown Rochester, where the asylum seekers are staying.