Academy of Medical and Public Health Services

As the Academy of Medical and Public Health Services (AMPHS) has grown, we have noticed a gap in our patients’ ability to reach their full potential despite being connected to an integrated health and social service model. Contentious federal health and immigration policies create chronic stressors that jeopardize the physical and mental health of our communities and continue to bar them from receiving affordable care. Patients must work with third-party attorneys, which creates a disjointed system of care. Using the Elevate Prize, my vision is to expand AMPHS into a Community Social Empowerment Center with an integrated medical-legal model of care that establishes a care team for each patient that includes clinical, social work, mental health and legal providers to help address all factors affecting an individual’s overall health. The funds would help hire attorneys and caseworkers and cover court proceeding fees and space costs.

At age 19, as a first generation immigrant, I started Academy of Medical & Public Health Services (AMPHS), a nonprofit in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, that addresses social determinants of health by offering free medical services and care coordination. Our movement mobilized 50+ health professionals to start a volunteer-run free clinic providing health screenings and consultations to uninsured/underinsured immigrants regardless of documentation, insurance or ability to pay. Over the years, we expanded our program with integrated social assistance, nutrition counseling, mental health therapy, immigrant rights education and adult literacy classes, tackling some of the key barriers to healthcare access: cost, literacy, and language access.

My vision is to transform AMPHS into a community health empowerment center that, in addition to existing services, will also integrate free peer-led programming through trained Community Health Workers to equip community members with resources to become their own health advocates. This includes immigrant empowerment, civic engagement, and health literacy workshops; exercise and wellness classes; English classes; peer support groups; art & music therapy; and a community-curated health/immigration resources library. Certified peer specialists with lived personal experiences overcoming mental health challenges (our program alumni) will also support participants undergoing therapy. 

AMPHS works primarily with Latino, Asian, and Muslim immigrant families in South Brooklyn that have been denied access to healthcare. AMPHS provides coordinated and integrated interventions in 3 program areas—clinical services, social services, and education— addressing root causes contributing to the health disparities and poor outcomes facing today’s immigrant populations. Since 2010, AMPHS has conducted outreach to over 10,000 individuals annually through coordinated outreach strategies.

The lack of power in our community in relation to the health care system is unsurprising yet deeply problematic, as policies are not designed with our communities in mind. Of the 4,540 people that we served through our direct service programs last year, 98% (4,450) are people of color; 82% (3,722) report having extremely limited English language proficiency; 75% (3,405) have no medical insurance; and 99% (4,495) live in low-income households. 

AMPHS has long been a trusted partner in Sunset Park, combining social and direct health services with culturally-sensitive grassroots outreach. Our direct health services include free bilingual mental health therapy, nutrition counseling, physical therapy, medical screenings and wellness consultations with licensed volunteer clinicians and partner organizations. Through preventative health screenings, we address chronic and social barriers to healthy living with a holistic intervention plan.

AMPHS’ Community Social Empowerment Center offers individualized care through a tightly-integrated social service team model to tackle some of the largest barriers and risk factors to health facing immigrant communities. It integrates mental health, social service, legal and medical practices to create a streamlined, holistic system of care that current institutions address separately. Services will be offered through a Community Health Worker team that provides culturally-sensitive health coaching, follow-up and interpretation. In addition to providing individualized care, the Center will offer free peer-led programming to equip community members with the resources to become their own health advocates; including immigrant empowerment workshops, English classes, and a health/immigrant resources library.

Therefore, an uninsured immigrant can maintain their care with a therapist, doctor, lawyer, and social worker that all work collaboratively to ensure that the individual understands their case and is connected to the appropriate services. Community members would receive consistent education to ensure they understand the policy landscape and self-care measures, allowing them to independently overcome institutional barriers and reverse the power wheel. If my work is successful, immigrant communities would be able to receive the first holistic model of care that empowers them on an individual and institutional level.

AMPHS' Community Social Empowerment Center directly benefits Latino and Asian immigrant families in Sunset Park, where AMPHS operates. Sunset Park is home to one of NYC's highest concentration of new immigrants, undocumented immigrants and unaccompanied minors—a group that suffers high risks of chronic, infectious, and behavioral health issues due to its lack of health insurance access. Our immigrant families have been denied access to care even under the Affordable Care Act. 

Particularly in changing sociopolitical times, the AMPHS Center will become a haven for our community to engage holistically in a broader dialogue about their overall health and wellness and advance health equity as a matter of social justice. It will provide immigrant populations an opportunity to address the convoluted, but often related issues that affect their wellbeing under one interwoven system. Moreover, the Center will help alleviate healthcare costs for larger healthcare institutions that are often charged with emergency requests for preventable situations. It will also supplement their services with the coordinated care and holistic self-empowerment programs that those institutions lack to develop a more robust healthcare system overall. This creates a community-level coordinated care model that New York State's five-year Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment System had aimed to achieve on a statewide level.