Caring for Afghan newcomers
Dr. Danielle Wheeler practices family medicine at a community clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. She and her team provide care for refugees and newcomers, including Afghan patients who fled after the Taliban’s return. Many of these patients face mental and physical stress from displacement and uncertainty.
No time to build trust
Dr. Wheeler recognizes the need for breast and cervical cancer screenings among her female Afghan patients but finds that standard appointments are too short to build trust and explain these sensitive exams. She needed a way to reach them in a culturally relevant way.
Videos that sparked an idea
After discovering MHI’s free multilingual Afghan Women’s
Wellness resources > she and
her colleagues organized a
women’s health education and
screening event.
Ten Afghan women attended the gathering, where they learned about breast and cervical exams from the videos. They all received exams that same day with the help of Dr. Wheeler and Afghan health navigators.
The videos sparked meaningful
discussions, addressing concerns about the exams. Seeing what an exam room looked like and learning they could request a female doctor reassured many women, leading them to participate.
MHI’s Support Connects Afghan Women to Care
MHI created the culturally relevant videos in partnership with the International Rescue Committee. Without this support, Dr. Wheeler’s clinic would have had to choose between spending months working with Afghan women to prepare them for culturally-sensitive screenings, or spending thousands of dollars to create high-quality videos like these for their communities. Using MHI’s resources connected the women to potentially life-saving preventative care at a crucial time in their lives.
Note: Some personal details have been changed in this story.