Michigan Programs Focus on Specific Health Needs and Access Issues of Muslim Women

Programs at the University of Michigan Health System and Dearborn, Mich.-based ACCESS Community Health and Research Center are helping the area's Muslim women overcome the cultural and religious barriers they often experience in accessing health services, the Detroit News reports. The programs address issues of language, the "dynamics of the Arab-American family" and Islamic traditions, such as modesty, that could affect health care. The entire staff at ACCESS speaks Arabic, and the center provides translators and is translating various written materials into Arabic. ACCESS Director Dr. Adnan Hammad said that Arab-American women hesitate to go to care providers who do not speak Arabic or are not of Arab descent. Muslim women seeking treatment at ACCESS are seen by female physicians because many Arab-American women "prefer not to be touched by a man -- even shaking hands." The National Arab American Medical Association has begun using ACCESS as a model with its members in Chicago, Cleveland and New Jersey, according to Dr. Ghaleb Hatem, the organization's president. Dr. Maya Hammoud, director of the Middle Eastern Women's Health Program at the University of Michigan, said that providers should understand "how the entire Middle Eastern family gets involved in patient care." For instance, a Muslim woman will often ask her husband for his opinion on treatment, which could be the "final word in [health care] decision making" for the woman, Hammoud added (Miller, Detroit News, 5/9).