(Radio Iowa) – Advocates who help refugees resettle in the state of Iowa say there’s a critical need for health care providers. Nick Wuertz is the Director of Immigrant & Refugee Community Services for Lutheran Services in Iowa and says eleven agencies are helping resettle 25-hundred people across the state, which is more than last year.“We do see additional challenges for newcomers, who don’t speak the language and are learning how to navigate insurance and all of these things,” Wuertz says. He says most refugees are coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, and Burma. Wuertz says there is a shortage of physicians, dentists, and especially mental health workers who can treat refugees.

Fatiya Adam is a native of Ethiopia who came to the United States 20 years after spending a decade in a refugee camp in Kenya. She now is a case worker and knows the challenges first-hand. “It changed my life because I put myself in their shoes. Coming from a different country and then now help those people. I understand what they are going through because we all go through a different trauma,” she says. Adam says there are a couple of issue that seem to be the same for all refugees. “Language and than culture shock, just because we look different, and people just don’t understand. Everybody who comes has a different experience,” Adam says.

Adams and several dozen others attended a conference at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City Friday on how to help achieve cultural awareness in health care.