Promoting child health and safety through patient advocacy

As an aspiring future physician, patient advocacy has always felt natural to me. That’s why I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to serve at THE PLAYERS Center for Child Health, the child advocacy center of Wolfson Children’s Hospital here in Jacksonville, FL. I wear many different hats at my host site: care coordinator helping families navigate the process of applying for Medicaid/CHIP and SNAP; certified Child Passenger Safety Technician performing car seat checks to ensure children are traveling safely; educator using stories like The Very Hungry Caterpillar to reinforce the importance of healthy eating and hygiene in young children. The bulk of my work, however, is concentrated in our Florida KidCare program
assisting with Medicaid/SNAP applications (and, often, rectifying the associated bureaucratic issues involved).

I grew up in a community where lack of insurance and underinsurance was a common barrier to healthcare access, and I am often reminded of my classmates, friends and neighbors in my discussions with families. Giving those phone calls letting parents know that the application they have been grappling with for months has finally been approved is the best part of my work.

I was recently helping a mother renew her young son’s Medicaid. The family had come to the United States from Ghana a few years ago, and while her son had been on Medicaid since his birth, the processor had marked his sister, who should have been eligible for Medicaid, as ineligible due to her immigration status despite her being within an eligible category. I can’t speak as to why this error may have occurred, but as a result, her medical bills had begun to pile up and her mother expressed concern that she may not be able to afford the care her daughter needed and deserved. With the guidance of my host site supervisor, Jarvis (a fellow National Health Corps Florida alum), I was able to submit an inquiry on her behalf, and within 24 hours, the technical error that had had such large consequences for this family was fixed. 

My mother came to this country as a single mother of two. I know that she would not have had the time in between working to put herself through school and caring for my siblings to resolve an issue like this herself. All children deserve the opportunity to grow up safe and healthy, and it is my honor to be able to use the training and resources provided by my host site to support the children of Duval and its surrounding counties in this pursuit.