Patients/community members discuss social determinants of health. (2023)
I agree with the comment about tradition. I think that we look at our parents who came here as immigrants and who did not make medical care a priority. It was economics and finances that was a priority and medical care only became at least secondary or even lower down the line than that. And when it became primary is when it became a medical emergency because we tend to feel trapped or limited financially in terms of how much we can give there in terms of time. So I think traditionally our parents did not make medical care a priority because financially they weren’t able to, and we kind of follow that same tradition, not deliberately, but maybe sort of inadvertently. Waiting for it to pass, or waiting for something else to happen to be able to take care of it rather than having a tradition where receiving medical service has to be at the forefront of everything. The forefront of everything has been taking care of the rental and all of those other bills. That’s the forefront. And medical has been secondary, unfortunately.