Foreign Born Program

The Foreign Born Health Program of the Marion County Health Department assists newly arriving refugees and immigrants in getting needed medical and dental screenings and examinations. It is the responsibility of the Foreign Born Program to see that the new arrivals are healthy and able to work as soon as possible.

The Foreign Born Health Advocates assist newly arriving potential citizens in learning how to utilize our health care system. At the same time, examinations of the new arrivals are done to assure that communicable disease transmission does not occur within the community.

The examinations for communicable diseases, including identification of individuals with active tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis are conducted. These examinations contribute to the containment of these very serious diseases. The personal attention given is particularly helpful to new arrivals facing devastating diseases such as heart disease, strokes and cancer. Depression, often associated with moving to a new country, is addressed when needed.

The Health Advocates employed in this program continue to help refugees and immigrants for several months and occasionally for one to two years if the people have long term health problems and they need help in understanding our medical system.