User:Aminah2640/Feminist health center

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Furthermore, feminist health centers maintain a commitment to reaching underserved populations that is largely unseen in other medical providers. Feminist health centers provide services to minorities, immigrants, refugees, the LGBTQI community, and the uninsured. To meet these needs, clinics usually offer sliding scale or reduced fees for services, and offer free health care to those who cannot afford to pay. In addition to reaching these oft-neglected populations, feminist health centers try to provide sensitive and respectful health care, recognizing health disparities in underserved groups and tailoring their services to the needs of the communities in which they operate. Drawing on new ideas and practices, feminist health centers value cultural humility and cultural competency to mitigate health disparities and increase accessibility of healthcare resources to marginalized communities. Cultural humility is the opportunity for providers to be self aware, mindful, and open to learning in every patient encounter, while structural competency is recognizing economic and political conditions that produce racial and systemic inequalities in health.

Add the following as a new section in Race and Health in the United States Race and health in the United States#Reproductive health(following Reproductive health) called

Health care services for women of color

Women of color disproportionately face additional challenges in accessing quality health care due to socioeconomic disparities and social determining factors of health. To reduce these disparities, health centers provide accessible health services for women, including women of color.

For example, a study from March 2016 to May 2017 surveyed 725 women seeking health services at two Planned Parenthood health centers- one in Louisiana and one in Kentucky- for their varying levels of access to care, including insurance stability and access to a regular source of care (RSOC). This study records that “more than 60% of women attending these health centers did not have a RSOC and nearly 40% experienced instability in insurance”. The most frequent reasons for attending these health centers were getting appointments quicker, acquiring confidential services, the low cost of services, and accessing services that are otherwise difficult to get because of insurance gaps, especially in states such as Louisiana that failed to expand Medicaid under the ACA.

For instance, The Women's Cancer Resource Center (WCRC), founded in 1986, provides support services and workshops that are language concordant and culturally-sensitive. The WCRC offers various types of emotional services, one of which are curtailed to the African American population and the another to the Latinx population. African Americans disproportionately face low quality of care and are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at a younger age and later stage. Sister to Sister is a support group for African American women to empower them with accessible financial and health educational resources and wellness workshops while providing them with a safe and supportive space. In addition, these free services that exist in immigrant communities can be entirely inaccessible. Children in immigrant families (CIF) are more likely to experience adverse social determinants of health, suboptimal health service utilization, and increased rates of chronic illness compared to children in non-immigrant families due to disproportionate rates of parental unemployment and underemployment, limited English proficiency (LEP), and limited access and participation in public safety net programs that exist among immigrant communities. Language barriers and high rates of low health literacy reduces the utilization of these services because these communities struggle to navigate them. To meet the needs of the Latinx community, the Latina Services provides cancer services, emotional support, and health educational resources that are accessible, culturally sensitive, and language concordant to all patients who speak Spanish. Women Health Centers like the WCRC work to make health services accessible to all women, including women of color and those with cultural and language barriers.