Back

Rita: I never met anybody like Petrona. Petrona is very optimistic…if she was not optimistic, she will not be where she is right now trying to take care of herself, you know helping others. That's what motivates her. As a Community Health Worker my job is to help Aetna members with their health problems. The first time I met Petrona and I saw her face to face it was a little strange to me because I saw this elderly lady with so much pain on her when she opened the door and then she was so polite to me and told me "you want water, you want coffee?" and you about to start serving me and I came here to help you.

Petrona: It's very important [00:30:00] to have somebody to make us feel familiar, somebody who makes us feel like at home.

Rita: Her you know barrier is that she cannot speak English fluently like she would like to. So by being with her I can help her to express what she needs to the doctors. So far I help Petrona with her her medications. That was the main goal. I looked through all the medications she had and wrote in Spanish on the bottle. “Ok, this is for this, you have to take it this amount of time.”

Petrona: When I met Miss Rita she helped me to focus, she put me on track to develop myself into what I am now. I feel better. she’s breaking the barrier.

Rita: The thing I like the most about you is that you're very funny. You always have story to tell me, and I like that a lot about you. When I first met her she was positive in a lot of things but she was sad. Now that I'm with her and help her to get what she needs, she seems more positive in life.She is making progress. Little by little she's really doing it.

Back