This World Health Day, discover how Access Health NYC is bridging language access divides in NYC's hospitals
This World Health Day, discover how AAPI-led community-based organizations are bridging language access divides in NYC's hospitals.
NEW YORK, New York (April 7, 2025) --- To commemorate World Health Day on April 7, the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) has released a new brief entitled Bridging the Gap: Insights on Community-Hospital Partnerships for Advancing Language Accessibility, which details how community-based organizations (CBOs) supported by the New York City Council-funded Access Health NYC initiative are tackling the language accessibility barriers that prevent many New Yorkers from accessing health care services.
Bridging The Gap spotlights how community-based partnerships between local nonprofits and New York City’s public and private hospital systems provide a vital bridge when it comes to addressing language access gaps for immigrant and limited English proficient patients navigating the health care system.
Because existing City and State policies have not resulted in adequate language translation and interpretation services, the 37 community-based organizations that make up Access Health NYC’s current awardees regularly hear from limited English proficient community members about the communication barriers that exist when they try to access hospitals and health care providers.
Current barriers include:
A lack of quality language access services, particularly when it comes to services for speakers of regional dialects
Struggles with finding telehealth services that meet the needs of non-English speakers
A growing distrust of the health care system by limited English proficient patients who struggle to get their needs met
As we note in Bridging the Gap, our Access Health NYC awardees work to address these barriers by partnering with both public and private hospitals to create language accessible and culturally affirming programs to tackle these disparities. Whether it is creating culturally-tailored programs to educate community members about conditions like diabetes and asthma or creating linguistically accessible ways for New Yorkers who are refugees to enroll in health insurance, these CBOs consistently show how building strong partnerships with local nonprofits can help hospitals significantly enhance cultural responsiveness and knowledge about the populations they serve.
Vital work like this is why CACF is currently advocating for an enhancement of $4.5 million dollars to the Access Health NYC initiative in the FY26 New York City Budget.
Launched in 2014 and funded by the New York City Council, Access Health NYC is a critical initiative that empowers and uplifts community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve hard-to-reach communities — a group that includes immigrants, non-English speakers, and undocumented community members. As a co-leader of Access Health NYC, CACF helps advocate for and organize diverse CBOs across NYC to do their vital on the ground work for hard to reach communities.
To read the full brief, head here.
For more information, please email Lakshmi Gandhi, CACF’s Senior Communications Coordinator, at lgandhi@cacf.org.
###
