Latino residents, health care providers, and representatives from government and nonprofit agencies met to discuss health needs in February at Carolinas HealthCare System Blue Ridge in Burke County.

By Les Gura

The need for providers to reach Spanish-speaking residents is spreading well beyond urban areas such as Forsyth and Guilford counties.

In Burke County, Francisco Risso is making those connections.

A second-year clinical pastoral education resident with Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Risso spends most of his week working for Carolinas HealthCare System Blue Ridge in Burke County.

In addition to his chaplaincy duties, Risso spent weeks recruiting members of the Latino community to a February conference at Blue Ridge. There, people in the community shared with hospital and other community leaders some of the biggest issues they face in getting health care.

Among the issues identified were:

• The need to help community residents understand how to use the health system without going to the hospital.
• The need to improve cultural competence, enabling hospital staff to make better connections with community members.

Hospital officials will meet to determine next steps. Risso hopes the result will eventually be programs that bring the Latino population closer to obtaining improved health care.

“The majority of people in the community are trying to raise children and integrate into the community, but they face huge barriers on a daily basis over immigration status, language and adjusting to a new culture,’’ Risso says.

Risso was born in Miami to Chilean parents, and moved to North Carolina when his father took a position as a Spanish professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory. He’s lived in Burke County ever since.

He received his degree from Lenoir-Rhyne and became a community organizer supporting hundreds of workers at Case Farms Chicken in Morganton. Risso later became head of a nonprofit formed to support the rights of workers in the region, most of whom are Guatemalan immigrants of Mayan descent.

After years of organizing and outreach work, Risso decided to enter divinity school. His position with Carolinas HealthCare, funded by an endowment grant obtained through Wake Forest Baptist, puts him right where he wants to be — continuing to assist the people of the region he’s lived in for nearly 20 years.

Chaplain Dennis Stamper, Risso’s supervisor at Carolinas HealthCare Blue

Ridge, says having Risso on staff “is a real opportunity to reach out.’’

“We want to form a closer, ongoing relationship with the Latino community, to better serve the needs of our fastest-growing population in Burke County.’’

Stamper also is a FaithHealthNC Fellow, one of a group of people bringing the FaithHealth concept to other parts of the state. Placing someone in the community who has worked with the Latino population makes this a great opportunity for Blue Ridge, Stamper says.

Risso was assigned during his second year of residency by Rev. Emily Viverette, director of the FaithHealth Education program. Risso’s engagement gives Blue Ridge a head start on a key issue for community members — trust.

“It’s because of their immigration status and our laws. There’s a real fear of engaging with any institution,’’ Risso says. “Our goal as a hospital is to build a partnership with the Latino community, and I think we need to hold ourselves accountable to that.”