In 2007 the Sinai Health System in Chicago started a rehabilitation health clinic specifically for refugees with physical disabilities, ABC 7 in Chicago reports. The clinic is the first of its kind to provide services for refugees with physical disabilities who recently arrived in the United States.
The clinic's refugees are from Somalia, Rwanda, Myanmar and increasingly a number of Arabic-speaking countries, so the clinic adminstration says that figuring out how to communicate with people from so many different countries has been one of the biggest challenges.
"One of the problems is, I never know what language is coming through the door," said Dr. Michelle Gittler, the rehabilitation physician for immigrants and refugees with disabilities. "We see individuals who've had amputations, people who've been in war zones and had amputations.
"We've seen individuals with developmental disabilities. They've never had access to things we take for granted, like early intervention programs. I've seen people with polio. I've see people who had had fractures that have not healed. So, you name a disability," she said.
Huda Hassan, who is from Iraq, said she used the clinic because her 5-year-old daughter was injured in an explosion when she was about three months old, which left her with seizures.
"There was some explosion [that] happened. It was during the war of Iraq and [there were] some explosions happening around the home. At that moment, she was scared. After that, she got seizures," said Hassan. "After six months and they went to see doctor, then they gave her medicine for the seizures, and the medicine was very strong for her."
Gittler explains that "if you are fleeing a country with a disabled family member and you go to a camp where there aren't even services for people who are able-bodied, let alone some who's disabled, it's overwhelming."
Gittler explains that "if you are fleeing a country with a disabled family member and you go to a camp where there aren't even services for people who are able-bodied, let alone some who's disabled, it's overwhelming."
In other resources, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants provides a Resource Guide for Serving Refugees with Disabilities, which is a how-to guide for caseworkers and advocates who serve refugees with disabilities.
