New Year’s resolutions are a tradition that many people engage in every year. Some resolve to address physical health – to eat better, to lose some weight, to exercise more – and these are all great. However, one aspect of health often gets completely overlooked during this time of year. Mental health affects millions of people across the country, but more often than not goes unaddressed. Latinos – especially young Latinos – are statistically more likely to have mental health issues than their peers and they are far less likely to seek treatment. Lack of access to resources, cultural stigma, and language barriers are all key reasons why Latino mental health often goes untreated. In an effort to reverse this situation, Kaiser Permanente has launched a website entitled ...
Latinos are significantly more likely than whites to say that the government should do more to make sure that Americans are healthier, even if it costs the taxpayers more (63% v. 53%), according to the 2017 Healthy Americas Survey. It makes sense. Here's why: Latinos suffer worse rates of obesity and other health issues because of lack of investment in safe streets, sidewalks, and parks, as well as lack of access to healthy food, early care and education, and family support. So what exactly do Latinos want?
2017 Healthy Americas Survey
You've heard that your ZIP code is a better predictor of your health than your genetic code, right? Past policies dictated the location and quality of affordable housing, public transportation, schools, sidewalks, parks, healthy food options, ...
Oriana Perez strives to make others feel welcome and supported. Perez, who grew up along the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, hopes to improve Latino health and provide mentorship for others, just like her mother always did. She puts this outlook into practice as a research coordinator at the Children’s Nutrition and Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, with an interest in adapting healthy lifestyle programs for use among Latinos. She also has served as a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization, a health educator and screener at Interactive Health, Inc., a health educator at Methodist Health System, and a research coordinator for tobacco prevention projects for youth at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. A few years after completing ...
Junk food marketing is a problem and hurts Latino kids’ health. To improve Latino kids’ health, we must remove obstacles to eating healthy, particularly targeted marketing of junk food. But how do you communicate this issue to others? Let's use #SaludTues on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018, to Tweet about shifting people’s thinking about targeted marketing of junk food to Latino kids. We will discuss messaging and communication tips to frame the problem as a health equity issue. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Framing the Problem of Junk Food Marketing to Latinos”
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOSTS: Berkeley Media Studies Group (@BMSG) and UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity ...
UT Health San Antonio officials recently approved a revised tobacco-free policy that comprehensively defines tobacco-free areas on campus, expands who the policy applies to, and extends the list of prohibited items to cover vaping and e-cigarettes. The university has had a tobacco-free policy since 2000. The revised policy, which is part of the UT Health SA Handbook of Operating Procedures, makes all workplaces smoke- and tobacco-free that are owned, leased, operated, or otherwise controlled by UT Health SA. This includes prohibiting all forms of tobacco, cigarettes, cigars, pipes, vaping, and e-cigarettes inside buildings and on campus grounds, entryways, and parking lots and structures, as well as in vehicles. This revised policy applies to all employees, staff and faculty, ...
The need for affordable housing is rising in many big cities across the United States. That includes San Antonio (68% Latino). The city is facing an affordable housing shortage of 142,000 units, while median sale prices for homes rose above $200,000 for the first time in 2016, The Rivard Report indicates. That's why first-term Mayor Ron Nirenberg created a Housing Policy Task Force to help address the current and future affordable housing need. “We have to face up to the fact that the housing paradigm in San Antonio must change,” said Nirenberg told The Rivard Report. “We need to protect and connect neighborhoods and make incredible growth, and expand housing choices for our residents, no matter what their income.” The Task Force, which held its first public ...
John Hernandez coached football in three disadvantaged school districts in Texas. When a player missed practice, Hernandez took it on himself to visit their home. He knew many players faced poverty and other home problems. He would check in on them and offer rides, so the players wouldn’t miss practices and games. Today, Hernandez directs student services at East Central Independent School District in San Antonio. He continues to see students facing poverty and trauma, resulting in missed school, which has disciplinary and even criminal consequences. However, his district didn’t have a program to identify, support, or counsel these students. Hernandez took it on himself to start one.
The Problem of Chronic Absenteeism
As director of student services, Hernandez is in ...
Luis Baez learned about true compassion from his Puerto Rican grandfather, who fought for Latino social justice all the way to the White House. He also got interested in science and math at an early age. So it’s no surprise that Baez, a native of Glendale, Wisc., is putting both his childhood interests and his compassionate nature together to study how to improve public health. He is currently a master’s-degree student in public health, specializing in epidemiology, at Loyola University Chicago. He is studying biostatistics in hopes of finding new ways to reduce cancer and HIV and improve the health of Latino and all people. To further his training and education, Baez applied for the Éxito! Latino Cancer Research Leadership Training program. The program, led by Dr. ...
Year by year, Latinos have become an increasingly important part of the U.S. workforce. Latinos currently account for 16% of the country’s labor pool and these numbers are growing rapidly, according to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). By 2025, one out of every two new workers will be Latino as 66,000 Latino teens are turning 18 each month. As Latinos grow in numbers, their importance to the economy will only continue to increase. However, a new report shows that Latinos generally are not living in the best cities for jobs. The employment website Glassdoor recently unveiled a ranking of the top 25 cities in the country for jobs. The site based its rankings on the ability to find a job, satisfaction with the job and, quality of life. “If you weigh (those ...
