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Sierra Heaton

November 17th

Professor Kwan

Human Growth and Development

Reflection

For my signature assignment I chose to educate, inform, and persuade people as to why

all elderly individuals should have access to healthcare. I set up a time to call Emilio and shared

with him my idea and research I had done so far. With his help, I chose to write a letter to the

editor to inform others about the hardships that these people are facing. If more people knew

about it, we could advocate to potentially make changes to these policies.

My goal of the letter in the newspaper was to inform readers about the current policy on

health care for undocumented individuals. I always assumed that anybody could apply for health

insurance. I wanted to educate readers about the ways in which undocumented elderly people

were being the most impacted by this policy. I learned from the guest speaker, Debbie Booth,

that undocumented elderly people often face twice the abuse as elderly citizens, however, are

half as likely to report it. Every person should have basic human rights no matter their status, and

the only way to fix it is to give them resources and the right to health insurance.

My plan was to target all adult citizens. Everyone has a parent or grandparent who is

increasing in age and can sympathize and understand the importance of having affordable

healthcare. I noticed it was difficult to find information on the internet about these problems,

which could be because many are worried about discussing it and getting deported. However,

when I spoke with the Dream Center and Debbie, they gave a lot of useful information that I was

able to use. Creating the campaign was difficult at times because I had to edit and rewrite a lot to
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keep my emotions out of my writing. I love this age group, so it made it hard to keep it factual

and logic-based material. Besides that, I enjoyed the process of learning how to advocate and

would like to continue to in the future. If I were to do something different in the future I would

advocate for another age group, so that I could learn about the issues and problems they are

facing. I would also schedule a meeting with the guest speaker Debbie Booth because I had a lot

of questions that I thought of after visit. I realized while completing this project that I want to

consider this as a career pathway because I felt happy and passionate about fighting for a cause. I

also learned how massive this topic is in our country now and the struggles that undocumented

immigrants are facing. I would like to become more involved with the Dream Center in the

future because I think it would be amazing to be a part of such special organization.

I learned about this age group during this project. This age group is the most prone to

getting sick and having chronic disease, however they are unable to see a doctor or receive a

prescription medication as the cost is too high. This becomes even more difficult in rural areas,

where they might not have the resources and social workers to help. An undocumented, elderly

man named Marco was being interviewed in the article Aging, Undocumented and Uninsured

Immigrants Challenge Cities and States. He said, “I don’t know if I have high blood pressure,”

he said, laughing ruefully, “Because I don’t check. Doctors, you know, are expensive.” Even if

it is available, they are forced to pass on preventative care because it is too expensive. I am

passionate towards this because I work in an assisted living center and had no idea about any of

these problems many are facing. I also specifically wanted to advocate for elderly undocumented

people to receive healthcare because this age group has a much larger need for it.

Seniors with dementia or Alzheimer’s can have brain capacities of small children and

may need to be placed in a senior living center so that they can live in a safe, comfortable
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environment if the family does not have the time to watch and care for them. Once again, these

places can be an unrealistic option to the family if none of them have insurance that raises the

risks of elderly abuse and neglect in the home. Debbie explained to me that if a senior has the

brain capacity of a four year, they cannot take care of themselves. She said, “You wouldn’t leave

a four-year-old home alone all day, would you?” But this is the case in many undocumented

families as they cannot afford to place them in a senior living center. At my job we have many

individuals with dementia who are confused, wander, and cannot take care of themselves. It

breaks my heart thinking that many are left alone all day or not being given the proper care that

should be a human right to everyone.

I also learned from the guest speaker that Molina health does have some resources to help

undocumented citizens. However, the majority are hesitant because of the fear of being deported

or reported to ICE.

I chose to advocate for elderly undocumented individuals because this is an age group

that I work closely with and hold dear to my heart. I had no idea the problems that these seniors

faced until I spoke with Emilio. I am grateful I chose to research for this age group because I

learned a lot of information and would like to continue to advocate for them.
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Citations

Wiltz, Teresa. “Aging, Undocumented and Uninsured Immigrants Challenge Cities and States.”
The Pew Charitable Trusts, 3 Jan. 2018, www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-
analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/01/03/aging-undocumented-and-uninsured-immigrants-
challenge-cities-and-states.

Balakrishnan, Aparna, and Neil Jordan. “The Undocumented Elderly: Coverage Gaps and Low
Health Care Use.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, U.S. National
Library of Medicine, 2019, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31422977.