Barbara Mendez Campos. Photo by the University of Michigan School of Social Work.
Barbara Mendez Campos, a doctoral candidate in the Boston College School of Social Work, says she is on a mission to help end racism and discrimination in the United States healthcare system.
Her dissertation focuses on how Hispanic patients with dementia and their caregivers have experienced this pair of problems in clinics and hospitals, with an emphasis on how access to treatment affects health.
While previous studies have found that environmental factors such as smoking and air pollution can increase the risk of dementia, Mendez Campos’ study is the first to explore the potential link between healthcare discrimination and the condition.
“Racism extends beyond immediate societal impacts, affecting one’s cognitive health,” says Mendez Campos, Ph.D.’25. “By prioritizing the dismantling of systemic barriers, we not only ensure healthcare access, but also strive for a future where individuals of all racial and ethnic backgrounds can lead healthier lives, fostering a society built on genuine equity and inclusivity.”
A new survey by KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, throws the extent of racism and discrimination in healthcare into stark relief. More than 50 percent of Hispanic adults say they “prepare for possible insults from providers or staff and/or feel they must be very careful about their appearance to be treated fairly during healthcare visits at least some of the time.” About one-in-five Black adults who were pregnant or gave birth in the past 10 years say they were refused pain medication they thought they needed, about twice the number of White adults who were pregnant. And over 40 percent of Asian adults say they have been discriminated against in daily life at least a few times in the past year, an experience associated with worse health and well-being.
Mendez Campos’ unique approach to tackling healthcare discrimination is being supported by a prestigious fellowship from the Grand Challenges for Social Work, an initiative that champions social progress powered by science.
Earlier this month, she received $3,000 to help eliminate racism, one of the initiative’s 13 grand challenges. Only 13 doctoral scholars from social work schools across the country were selected for this year’s award, one for each challenge.
“I’m surrounded by amazing colleagues whose work I believe in so much,” says Mendez Campos, whose credentials include a license to practice clinical social work. “And so to be distinguished through this award confirms that I belong here, too, that people believe in the work that I’m doing, and that my work matters.”
She plans to use her fellowship funding to interview people who care for dementia patients. Although the primary focus of her research is Hispanic patients and caregivers, she hopes to talk with Black, White, and Asian caregivers as well to get a sense of how their experiences compare and contrast.
“I want to let the voices of dementia caregivers come through,” she says. “What’s the good in creating initiatives if we don’t listen to what our community is telling us about barriers to care, what’s working, and how they’ve navigated a healthcare system with everything that they’ve had to face?”
Mendez Campos will also analyze data from the California Health Interview Survey, the largest state health survey in the U.S. The survey includes data from 11 different Hispanic subgroups—information that Mendez Campos can use to pinpoint similarities and differences between their healthcare experiences.
“A Cuban immigrant might come from money, while a Mexican immigrant might come from the complete opposite background,” she says. “We need to be able to address these kinds of differences and be able to have practitioners not silo themselves into this one idea of thinking they’re culturally competent because they’ve seen one Hispanic person.”
“I want to let the voices of dementia caregivers come through. What’s the good in creating initiatives if we don’t listen to what our community is telling us about barriers to care, what’s working, and how they’ve navigated a healthcare system with everything that they’ve had to face?”
Her research idea came together piece by piece, shaped by a series of personal and professional experiences dating back to her teenage years.
Mendez Campos grew up in Mexico and frequently volunteered to bring food to homeless children who lived at the top of a mountain in the northern part of the country. One day, while she was on her way to deliver food to kids, she noticed an older man sitting on a bench and looking sad. She stopped to give him a bag of goodies, and he told her that he wished that she would bring food to other adults in his village, too.
Mendez Campos, then 14, took the man’s words to heart and began bringing food to adults. “From that point on,” she says, “I’ve had such a passion for being around older adults, helping them, and listening to their stories.”
Her first foray into dementia care took place six years later, when she was studying social work as an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida in 2015. As part of a 16-month internship, she helped create, implement, and manage a music and memory program for patients at the Alzheimer’s & Dementia Resource Center outside Orlando.
“If it wasn’t for my mentors there, the people who believed in my skill set and who I was as a person, I wouldn’t be the practitioner I am today,” she says.
At BC, Mendez Campos confides in Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor Karen Bullock, the chair of her doctoral committee. Mendez Campos says she calls Bullock when her confidence wavers, when she’s questioning whether she’s cut out to succeed in academia. Bullock, who has worked with Black and Latinx communities for more than 20 years, reassures her that she has what it takes.
“Professor Bullock always tells me that she believes in me as a person,” says Mendez Campos. “It’s not just my work that’s worth it, it’s that I’m worth it, too.”
Her long-term career goal is to follow in her mentor’s footsteps, she says, becoming a tenure-track faculty member at a top-tier research university. She hopes that her dissertation will pique the interest of social work deans.
Although she’s still gathering data for the project, Mendez Campos predicts that policymakers and doctors will see her research findings as even more evidence to fix racial disparities in healthcare. She says that social workers could use her findings related to the healthcare experiences of different Hispanic groups to tailor interventions to meet the specific needs of their clients.
“Practitioners could move from treating Hispanic people as a homogenous population to seeing nuances in this group that we need to pay attention to,” she says. “Social workers are situated to say, ‘Let’s address what you’ve experienced in this medical system. What’s your situation? What’s your background? What can we do?’”