How COVID-19 deteriorates social connectedness and exacerbates health disparities in vulnerable populations.
“The doctor was not good; she did not want to believe that we had the coronavirus. We were the first Oregon cases. No isolation rules, nothing,” says a Latina mother of two quoted in a Public Health Insider webcast on combating social isolation in vulnerable populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
College of Public Health and Human Sciences Assistant Professor Jonathan Garcia, doctoral student Nancy Vargas and alumna Cynthia De La Torre, B.S. ’20, led the discussion and are each involved in ENLACE, which stands for Engaging the Next Latinx Allies for Change and Equity. This program builds solidarity and amplifies youth voices, connecting Latinx and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth in fighting social isolation.
“We need to reframe the problem of social isolation,” Garcia says. “Current models place the problem on the individual, suggesting that social isolation is a consequence of their identity. The individual is not at fault; the social context and the system are problems.”
In efforts to address how COVID-19 has made isolation and health disparities even worse for Latinx communities, Vargas began interviewing Latinx parents to see how they were coping. Areas where the community felt most concerned included food security and housing, work, education and health care.
“I want you to think about the mother who was not believed, not tested, not told to isolate,” Vargas says. “Not only did this instance of discrimination affect the Latinx community, this affected each and every one of us. Discrimination doesn’t hurt a select few. It hurts all of us.”
De La Torre says Latinx communities learn to rely on one another to help find care and support, which the pandemic has made more difficult due to social distancing guidelines. As a community health worker at Casa Latinos Unidos, she is on the front line helping Latinx communities receive resources related to pandemic assistance in Linn County.
“When systems fail, it is in the community where sustainability and resilience occur,” De La Torre says. “We cannot do things alone. We need each other.”
This story originally appeared in Synergies, a newsletter from the College of Public Health and Human Sciences.