Watch video: Cultural navigators are a bridge to care

Navigators bring many skills to the mission of dismantling barriers to health-care access and building trust in our healthcare and social service systems.

In the Central Puget Sound Region, Providence Swedish is home to a multi-lingual and diverse team of cultural navigators who are dedicated to removing cultural and language barriers to care for every patient we serve. Since its inception in 2020, Providence Swedish’s Cultural Navigation Program has focused on accessing care to underserved communities, including those who identify as BIPOC, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, LGBTQIA+, unhoused or uninsured.   
  
Supported by the Providence $50 million health equity grant, the cultural navigation team currently includes Spanish, Arabic, English and Vietnamese speakers. Navigators bring many skills to the mission of dismantling barriers to health-care access and building trust in our healthcare and social service systems. In addition to serving our patients in their native languages, cultural navigators assist with many social determinants of health (SDOH) including access to financial aid, appointment scheduling and prescriptions, health insurance enrollment and more.   

 ^{Watch this short video about Providence Swedish's Cultural Navigation Program. In 2023 alone, the program assisted more than 995 patients  experiencing cultural or language barriers to care.}  

They are also on the ground in our communities, bringing connection and services where they are most needed. In 2023 alone, the program served more than 955 patients with identified language or cultural barriers, co-hosted five mobile mammogram events, served more than 1,100 neighbors at community events, and attended more than 35 community health events to support vaccination and screening efforts.    
  
“The hard work of our cultural navigators has really blossomed into organic relationships within the community,” says Jesus Elizalde-Lindgren, director of health equity. “Look like me, sound like me, understand me. These are all components that are important to the services we provide.”     

About Providence Swedish

Providence Swedish has served the Puget Sound region since the first Providence hospital opened in Seattle in 1877 and the first Swedish hospital opened in 1910. The two organizations affiliated in 2012 and today comprise the largest health care delivery system in Western Washington, with 22,000 caregivers, eight hospitals and 244 clinics. A not-for-profit family of organizations, Providence Swedish provides more than $406 million in community benefit in the Puget Sound Region each year. The health system offers a comprehensive range of services and specialty and subspecialty care in a number of clinical areas, including cancer, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care.