Efforts Focus on Minority Health Awareness, Pregnancy Among Hispanics
The following highlights recent efforts by groups and communities to improve health awareness among various minority groups and to address racial and ethnic health disparities.
- Alameda County, Calif.: Girls Inc., an awareness program for teenagers, on Saturday held its annual "Celebrating Special Women in Our Lives" conference, which focused on educating youth about HIV/AIDS, the Oakland Tribune reports. The conference included two workshops -- one for younger girls and another for older women -- that addressed effective communication between the two generations. The group seeks to improve dialogue among black women about the disease (Ricard, Oakland Tribune, 5/5).
-
Association of Black Cardiologists: The Atlanta-based association plans to sponsor three-day public forums in various cities around the nation in an effort to educate blacks about cardiovascular health and reduce heart disease mortality rates among the group, the Dallas Morning News reports. The forums will provide attendees with information about cardiovascular disease prevention (Adams-Wade, Dallas Morning News, 5/9).
- Florida: The Florida Department of Health from May 16 to May 18 will host a summit, called "Addressing Health Disparities: Moving Beyond Hope to Action," to examine racial and ethnic health disparities in the state, the Tampa Business Journal reports. The summit is expected to include a series of sessions that address disparities among minority youth and the elderly, mental health and substance use treatment, cultural competency, prejudice and bias in the health care system, and data collection among racial and ethnic populations, according to the Business Journal (Tampa Business Journal, 5/8).
- Luling, La.: Johnson & Johnson has awarded the St. Charles Community Health Center a two-year $150,000 grant that will be used to develop a pregnancy program for Hispanic women in Luling and surrounding communities, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. The program, called Centering Pregnancy, will address issues related to a lack of health care access and provide low-cost prenatal care, according to Mark Keiser, CEO and executive director of the center. Instead of having a 10-minute individual visit with a nurse practitioner, women seeking services at the center will participate in a 90- to 120-minute forum with a health practioner and between eight and 10 women (New Orleans Times-Picayune, 5/10).
- Mesa County, Colo.: The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on Friday will hold a town hall meeting to discuss racial and ethnic health in the county, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports. "We just want to address where ... disparities exist regardless of the size of the population," Dolores Pitman of the state health department's Minority Health Advisory Commission, which sponsored the event, said (Standish, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, 5/11).
-
National Hispanic Medical Association: NHMA on Thursday held its 6th Hispanic health congressional briefing series, called "Partnering With Media About Health Disparities in Your District," which urged lawmakers to increase funding to eliminate health disparities among low-income and underserved communities. Elena Rios, president of the association, said the briefing -- sponsored by The California Endowment -- served as a forum to educate congressional staff on how the media can reach minority communities, as well as help improve awareness of health disparities among lawmakers and the public (NHMA release, 5/10).
-
Workplace Spanish: Workplace Spanish, which develops job-specific Spanish-language learning materials, on Wednesday announced the release of a new CD-ROM that will help health care workers better communicate with Spanish-speaking patients. "Click It" features clickable audio Spanish terms, expressions, pronunciations, phonetics and practice conversations that users can search by key word. Health workers can locate the term or phrase they need to communicate with the patient and click on it to hear the translated version, which also can be played for the patient to hear (Workplace Spanish/PR Newswire release, 5/9).