Professor Wins Fulbright Senior Research Scholarship to Examine Health Care Issues for Immigrants

By Kara R. Niemi

Next semester, psychology professor Gonzalo Bacigalupe will pack his bags and head to Barcelona, Spain, as one of twenty psychology scholars nationwide to receive the Fulbright Senior Research Scholarship. He will spend five months exploring health care access for immigrants in Spain. He will then compare the results to his three years of research in the care provided to Latino families in Boston.

"Social scientists know little about the immigrant Latino experience in the U.S., despite the fact that Latinos are becoming the largest ethnic group in the country," says Bacigalupe. He is eager to observe the experience of immigrants within another national and linguistic realm. Bacigalupe finds that the language barrier is a hindrance for the Latino community in the U.S. and questions whether accessibility to health care is easier for immigrants in Spain, where this barrier does not exist. He says, "I want to know whether the Latino voice is defined within a context that aids in their oppression."

Bacigalupe will work in the Hospitat St. Pau and Creu, a psychiatric medical school at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona--an old and cherished landmark in Spain. He will be lecturing students as well as gathering data, and he plans to assemble a research team of four to five graduate students in Spain who will conduct fieldwork and create contacts.

The research strategy involves interviewing Latino families about their experience with health care in Spain. He says, "I would like to explore three themes: family and political violence, Latino families’ health care, and multicultural family therapy." He adds that he believes the proposal for this scholarship "was well-received because health care for immigrants is a relevant concern in Spain."

In his previous and present research, Bacigalupe has worked with Mass Salud, which means "mass health" in Spanish. He says that the title "Mass" not only refers to the state of Massachusetts, but also suggests the health of the masses, or the massive number of concerns that Latinos face in health care.

Bacigalupe has found that Latino patients are often uninsured, seem less aware of their rights, or are less confrontational than other ethnic groups. They often have problematic relationships with health care professionals and have minimal access to childcare, transportation, and/or coordinated services. The language barrier often complicates these issues. For those Latino patients who are insured, Bacigalupe finds that a major issue is having trust in their health care providers.

Bacigalupe seeks to develop meaningful knowledge for families in both Spain and the U.S., and to improve the communication between them and their practitioners. He hopes that his research will help create change in health care public policy. As a professor who has brought a new level of technology into the classroom at UMass Boston, Bacigalupe will continue to collaborate on his research via the Web once he leaves Spain.

Overall, Bacigalupe believes that this research will offer much to the UMass Boston community. He says, "This exchange will enhance UMass Boston’s ability to fulfill its urban mission by developing new venues for understanding and serving immigrant students." Bacigalupe feels privileged to study in a country that he describes as "historically tremendous, where the value of education is very high," and he is determined to bring this knowledge back to his own community.

Image: Gonzalo Bacigalupe, professor of psychology, is one of twenty scholars nationwide to receive the Fulbright Senior Research Scholarship. He will conduct research on health care in Barcelona, Spain, next semester. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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