OGDEN, Utah — A student at Weber State University is working on a way to make health care more accessible for Native Americans.
Kendra Ellison is a senior at the radiology department at Weber State. She has an idea to help her community by building bridges.
“And it’s not just in the hospitals — it’s in home health care, physical therapy, and all of where our elders are seeking care. There’s that language gap, and it’s quite frustrating to see it,” explained Ellison.
Ellison goes to campus a few times a semester but lives in New Mexico. She works at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock.
"My plan is to build a Navajo medical terminology app. This came about because I noticed that there was such a language barrier,” she said.
This idea stemmed from her work out there, and circumstances at home.
"Another reason why I’m pursuing this dream is because my father has various health issues. So we've been in and out of doctors' appointments and clinics and such and when he is really sick, we call it his ‘default mode,’ where he goes back to only speaking Navajo," said Ellison.
She hopes to build a platform to make care more accessible, because there is a lack of interpreters as well.
"People that do know Navajo, but they don’t know the medical terminology,” she said.
Ellison's dream is to help all Native American communities.
"Eventually, my long-term goal is to help the other smaller tribes," she said.
Ellison doesn’t know when her app will be up and running. In the meantime, she is brushing up on her own Navajo skills to help however she can.
