Resident health studied

Dr. Karen Hacker, director of the Institute for Community Health, is using immigration focus groups and other information-gathering in the city to test the hypothesis that the increased enforcement activity occurring nationwide is discouraging immigrants from seeking medical care and affecting their mental health.

“I think there is a tremendous amount of fear in the immigrant community. I think there are a lot of concerns about exposing your status,’’ said Hacker, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

While only the focus phase of the study has been completed, Hacker said there are preliminary indications that in Everett those fears are having health impacts on some immigrants - documented and undocumented.

“There definitely is a problem. We are trying to figure out how big the problem is and what we can do about it,’’ said Bob Marra, director of the Everett Community Health Partnership, which is assisting with the research effort.

Marra said he believes the study will be “very useful,’’ in particular because it complements two other related efforts.

One is an initiative to foster community dialogue on concerns of immigrants in the city.

Funded with a $40,000 grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, it is being coordinated by Marra’s group and the Joint Committee for Children’s Health Care in Everett. The other is a state-funded project that produced a newcomers guide to Everett.

“These are three coincidental projects all going on at the same time,’’ Marra said. “All are related to making Everett a model welcoming community.’’

According to Marra, Everett has seen a significant rise in its immigrant population the past 15 years. The largest group has been Brazilians. There are also growing numbers of Creole-speaking Haitians; Spanish-speaking immigrants, many from Central America; and Arabic-speaking people, many from Morocco.

The Institute for Community Health is a nonprofit research organization run collaboratively by the Cambridge Health Alliance, Mt. Auburn Hospital, and Massachusetts General Hospital. It is housed at the Harvard-affiliated alliance, whose network includes Whidden Memorial Hospital, in Everett.

The study is being funded through a $50,000 grant from Harvard under its Catalyst program, which supports research by Harvard investigators.

Hacker said the institute emphasizes “participatory research,’’ which seeks to involve the community in every aspect of a research project. She came up with the idea of the Everett study after she was approached by community members last fall.

“They were very concerned that the immigrant population in Everett was experiencing barriers to healthcare that had to do with anxiety because of increased immigrant enforcement,’’ she said. “Immigrants who were feeling anxious weren’t going to appointments or getting their prescriptions filled,’’ fearing that somehow their immigration status might be exposed.

“The idea was to learn more about it so we could develop an intervention that might be more effective,’’ she said.

Hacker recruited community organizations serving different immigrant groups to run the five focus groups. Sessions were held in Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and English.

The focus groups provided a window into the anxieties many immigrants experience, Hacker said. Even documented immigrants express concerns that their appearance or accent makes them more likely to be stopped by law enforcement officers - whether local police or federal immigration agents, she said.

Mohamed Brahimi, spokesman of the Malden-based Muslim American Civic and Cultural Association, organized the Arabic-speaking focus group. He believes the study will be beneficial.

“It’s about time people thought about the immigrant population, and what keeps them up at night,’’ said Brahimi, who is originally from Morocco. “People rarely think of them as human beings who have human rights, who get sick and go to the hospital, who develop mental issues, especially the undocumented population.’’

While he is awaiting the results of the study, Brahimi said from his session he believes there are indications that fears of enforcement “definitely have some bearing on immigrants’ health-seeking behavior.’’

The study will also include a survey of primary healthcare providers, and interviews with community leaders.

Hacker said she is pleased by the willingness of Police Chief Steven Mazzie and other local officials to participate in the study, noting that helps make it a community effort.

“Rather than fracturing the community, we really want to bring it together,’’ she said.

Mazzie said his department is actively reaching out to the city’s immigrant communities. As an example, as part of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation-sponsored project, it recently prepared a booklet for immigrants about “What To Do When Stopped by the Police.’’

Mazzie said Everett police do not report undocumented immigrants to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents unless they have arrested the individuals for a serious crime or the person is actively being sought by the federal agency.

“I can’t control what goes on in other communities or other states,’’ Mazzie said of raids and other law enforcement action that might cause anxiety among immigrants. “We’ve made a commitment to try to work with all of our residents, regardless of what their status is.’’