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Alyssa Escalante

Articles by Alyssa Escalante

Strengthen Your Mobile Healthcare Program with the RHI Hub Toolkit


RHIhub

The Rural Health Information Hub (RHI Hub) and the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis have created the Rural Mobile Healthcare Toolkit to help organizations start mobile healthcare programs in rural areas. The toolkit highlights model programs and contains resources for program development, implementation, evaluation, and more. Let’s take a closer look at the toolkit and why support for rural healthcare is important. Get the toolkit! RHI Hub’s Rural Mobile Healthcare Toolkit The Rural Mobile Healthcare Toolkit includes considerations and challenges that organizations may face when developing, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining mobile healthcare programs in rural communities. Additionally, the toolkit shares benefits and barriers of mobile healthcare, ...

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3 Resources for Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month


Children's Eye Health and Safety Month

August is Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month, a time that highlights the importance of protecting children’s vision. With this in mind, Salud America! has put together a list of helpful tools and resources for parents and families to learn more about children’s eye health and vision. 1. Prevent Blindness Through Prevent Blindness, the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health is a place where parents and caregivers can find a multitude of support. Health education resources, including vision and eye health presentations and webinars and children’s vision fact sheets, posters, reports, and publications. There are also plenty of resources for parents and caregivers with children who have vision problems or impairment. In collaboration with the National ...

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Data: Latino Degree Attainment Still Lags, Despite Gains


Latino graduates celebrating

Only 30% of Latino adults have earned an associate degree or higher, compared to about 50% of all adults, according to a new data from Excelencia in Education.   “Enrollment gains have not translated into closing gaps in degree attainment — a persistent gap documented,” according to Excelencia in Education.   Let’s dive deeper into degree attainment and why it matters for Latinos and all people.   Latino Degree Attainment by the Numbers   There’s some good news in Latino degree attainment.  Latino attainment of an associate degree or higher increased by 8 percentage points and bachelor’s degree attainment increased by 6 percentage points, according to the new data.   Despite this progress, Latinos have the lowest levels of ...

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San Antonio, Can You Share Your Health Research in 3 Minutes?!


T1 to T4 in 3 (Minutes) Challenge

Are you up for a challenge? If you’re a translational science student or community member working on research in San Antonio, you are invited to the 2026 Virtual T1-T4 in 3 (Minutes) Challenge. The challenge — hosted by the Institute for Integration of Medicine & Science (IIMS) and the Office of Research Education & Mentoring, and Community Engagement at UT Health San Antonio — invites presenters to share their research in 3 minutes and 1 slide to a live audience of community members, students, and faculty. This free online event is from 9-10:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026. Challenge participants can be students/trainees in any translational science program at UT Health San Antonio. Community members who are part of a community-academic partnership who have ...

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How Do Latinos in the U.S. View Their Identity?


Latino family having dinner.

Latinos account for 1 in 5 people in the United States. Among this group, most Latinos say their heritage is an important part of their identity, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center. In fact, 61% of Latinos said that “being Hispanic is an extremely or very important part of how they think about themselves,” according to a survey of 4,923 U.S. Latino adults in English and Spanish from October 2025. Even with this identity, Latinos are divided over whether it helps or hurts them. So, let’s dive deeper into the new survey and what it means for Latinos in the United States. Latino Identity: Labels and Names Among U.S. Latinos, 18% most often describe themselves as “American.” The remaining Latinos more often use a label that reflects their ...

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Study: Rates of Alcohol Use Disorder Higher in People with Disabilities


Person with alcohol problem.

1 in 6 Latinos in the U.S. live with a physical, sensory, intellectual, or mental disability that impacts how they navigate life and health, according to the Cisneros Institute. Tailored healthcare resources can help. This includes treatment for alcohol use disorder that addresses the unique needs of people with disabilities – who are diagnosed with alcohol use disorders at more than three times the rate of adults without disabilities, according to a new study by Boston University. Let’s dig deeper into this research and why it matters for overall health. Alcohol Use Disorders among People with Disabilities Alcohol use disorder is “a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health ...

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Get Tips on Better Nutrition with Nutrition Navigation


Couple meal prepping at kitchen counter.

Healthy eating can be a challenge for many different reasons. Lack of access to grocery stores, rising food costs, and lack of awareness of how to eat healthy are just a few reasons why some people have worse nutritional diets than others. That’s where Nutrition Navigation can help. Nutrition Navigation is a new virtual nutrition counseling service from Healthier Texas that is designed to connect Texans with personalized, evidence-based care from registered dietitians. Let’s dive deeper into this tool and see how it can help Texas families and communities. The Benefits of Nutrition Navigation Nutrition Navigation was created to help combat the barriers that communities face when it comes to understanding and practicing better nutrition. Through Nutrition Navigation, ...

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3 Bilingual Type 1 Diabetes Resources to Help Latinos and Families


Hispanic Male Using Insulin Pen at Breakfast Table with a Smile

There are 1.5 million people in the U.S. living with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Nearly 200,000 of the people living with type 1 diabetes in the US are under the age of 20. What’s more,13% of Latinos in the U.S. have T1D. “The prevalence of type 1 diabetes is increasing across all populations, most significantly among Hispanic youth,” according to Breakthrough T1D. This shows the importance of access to educational tools and resources to help Latinos and families navigate type 1 diabetes and that’s where Breakthrough T1D can help. Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) is the leading global type 1 diabetes (T1D) research and advocacy organization. With a mission to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent, and treat T1D and its complications, no organization ...

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How Do Parents’ Jobs Impact Family Life


Father working at computer with child.

More than half (52%) of parents say that their job makes it harder to be a good parent, according to a report from the Pew Research Center. This especially takes a toll on working moms. In fact, 62% of full-time working moms say it’s difficult for them to balance work and family responsibilities, compared with 47% of dads. “Compared with dads, working moms take on more at home and have a harder time finding balance,” Pew Research states. Let’s dive deeper into this topic and how it impacts parents and families. Working Parents by the Numbers Of the nation's 85.9 million families, 79.8%  had at least one employed member in 2025, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. It can be difficult to define the line between work and family for many U.S. working ...

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