When you have kids, visiting the doctor becomes almost commonplace.
When you have nine kids, visiting the doctor becomes an orchestrated event. And when, on top of that, you don’t speak English, the situation only becomes more complex. Just ask Milana Atanassopoulos, the United Way-funded Ukrainian/Russian outreach worker at Community Health Center of Snohomish County. Although the position is relatively new, Milana has made a marked impact for many local, non-English speaking families, including Ukrainian-born Svetlana Nazarchuk and her children.
One community investment area United Way prioritizes is access to health care, particularly for the 40 percent of local residents who lack health insurance through work. Many of these residents completely forego coverage, which strains the local economy as families use hospital emergency rooms for preventative and non-emergency care.
“I sometimes even find a cultural disconnect among my patients on preventative care,” Milana said. “Many of the people I work with come from places that don’t typically promote medical or dental prevention. So, a big part of my job is education and advocacy.”
Milana’s outreach support extends access to all services offered by the agency’s three clinics in Everett and Lynnwood. She typically answers calls or visits the homes of her mostly low-income Ukrainian/Russian-speaking patients, answering any medical questions they have. She often finds herself scheduling and translating for appointments, serving as intermediary with insurance companies, helping fill out health insurance applications or connecting them with specialists.
Judging from Svetlana’s high regard for Milana, she may have found her professional niche for life.
“She has helped so much with scheduling both medical and dental care, and there is nothing that means more to us than the health and wellness of our children,” Svetlana said. “Milana is an extension of the family, someone we can trust and depend on anytime.”