Childhood Refugee Experience Inspires Dr. Tabarsi to Serve Other Refugees
Dr. Baharak Tabarsi is a family medicine physician at Valleywise Health. She cares for patients from newborns to geriatrics with acute and chronic conditions and provides preventative and wellness care. Dr. Tabarsi feels a deep connection with the refugee patient population at Valleywise Health, which is why she was inspired to start the Valleywise Health Family Medicine Refugee Clinic in 2022. She was a refugee herself.
Born in Iran, Dr. Tabarsi lived in the war-torn region until she was 11 years old. Her father was a physician in Iran and worked in a safety-net hospital. He served patients very similar to the ones at Valleywise Health. Unfortunately, Dr. Tabarsi’s father lost his position because of religious discrimination and his family was forced to flee the country for safety.
“My family and I belonged to a religious minority, the Baha’i Faith, which is highly persecuted by the Islamic regime of Iran,” said Dr. Tabarsi. “Because of our beliefs, we were forced to flee the country in the mid-1980s on foot through the desert in the middle of the night. We were smuggled out of Iran, sought asylum in Pakistan and eventually landed in the U.S. It was a horrifying experience.”
Because of her childhood, Dr. Tabarsi understands first-hand the struggles refugees face. They include language barriers, trauma, limited access to healthcare and the struggles to assimilate into a new country. As a physician, her goal is to go beyond just writing prescriptions for immigrant patients. She wants to genuinely be an advocate, lessen their challenges and improve the overall health of the refugee community.
“Experiencing inequities in healthcare myself is a motivator for what I do every day at Valleywise,” said Dr. Tabarsi. “When my family and I came to the U.S., we were in the welfare system, we were fed by food stamps and access to healthcare was an issue. Working with our patient population is a calling for me. I knew I wanted to help marginalized patients. Deep in my heart, that’s who I connect with and who I want to serve.”
Valleywise Health is committed to supporting refugee communities and the resettlement process. The American healthcare system can often feel overwhelming and confusing, especially for those in refugee communities. Valleywise Health is dedicated to ensuring a supportive and safe environment to meet the healthcare needs of every patient, regardless of their background or ability to pay. One of the most impactful ways this is done is through cultural health navigators who serve as liaisons between the healthcare system and patients.
Cultural health navigators are multilingual, multicultural individuals who are incredibly valuable to the refugee community, offering interpretation services to patients throughout the Valleywise Healthcare system.
“At Valleywise, we are privileged to work with a fantastic group of cultural health navigators from countries around the world,” said Dr. Tabarsi. “These navigators are often the same nationality as our patients, so they understand the family dynamics and social complexities of the individuals. Being culturally humble and learning beside our patients when it comes to medical and social needs is integral to the process. It takes a village to care for patients.”
Refugee care is both medically and socially nuanced, which is why the Family Medicine Refugee Clinic is now part of Valleywise Health’s residency clinic. Several days a week Dr. Tabarsi and her peers work with learners, medical students and residents to teach future family physicians the skills necessary to serve the refugee population today and in the future.
“Providing care to this group of patients, especially when you’re documenting torture and trauma, is not for everyone,” Dr. Tabarsi concluded. “It has to be a calling. I think it’s important to expose future clinicians and residents to this patient population. For some, they may decide this practice is not for them. For others they may decide refugee health and care of vulnerable patients speaks to them and is the patient population they want to work with, despite all the challenges. Being part of that discovery process is inspiring to me.”
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