The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are a wonderful time to express your gratitude and share food with the people you love most in this world. However, the 2020 hits just keep coming. Family gatherings are still not safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC discourages in-person family gatherings for the holidays. Instead, you can safely deliver/swap traditional dishes to nearby familia, ship gifts, and use a video conference to stay connected. “It is the holidays, but it’s also a global pandemic. Safety has to be a priority over tradition,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Salud America! Latino health equity program at UT Health San Antonio. See our “Juntos, We Can Stop COVID-19” bilingual campaign to encourage you─juntos/together─ to do ...
Ángela García wasn’t planning on becoming an artist. She entered college in the pre-med track, intending to go into a medical career. But then she started taking art history classes. And she kept taking them, despite still being in the pre-med track. “I was like, ‘You know what? I don’t like this. Maybe I don’t like the sciences as much as I thought I did. And I’m really interested in this art history curriculum.’ So, I switched over at the end of my sophomore year,” García said. Now she’s a senior art history major at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with several large-scale art projects under her belt, having rekindled a passion for creative work from her childhood. “I used to do painting when I was younger but I kind of fell out of it for a ...
As we continue the battle against COVID-19, public health authorities are urging cities to increase their contact tracing efforts. “Contact tracing is key to slowing the spread of COVID-19 and helps protect you, your family, and your community,” according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. But identifying people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and tracking their whereabouts and potential infection sources has its challenges. People may be skeptical to release information to contact tracers calling on the phone if they’re wary of scams. And because COVID-19 disproportionately affects Latino and other minority communities, there may be a language barrier or sense of fear when discussing health information with state employees. What can be done to face ...
Latinos are disproportionately impacted by the health and economic impacts of COVID-19. To reduce inequities, local and state leaders need to ensure Latinos and others from highly impacted communities are embedded in response and recovery. That’s where a community-based workforce comes in. During a pandemic, community-based workforce principles can help cities expand contact tracing and identify risk; support psychological, social, and primary care services; and mitigate the impact of unemployment. Join #SaludTues on Sept. 29, 2020, at 1:00 PM EST to tweet about how telehealth providers can reach underserved populations. WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “How a Community-Based Workforce Advances Health Equity”
DATE: Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2020
TIME: 1:00-2:00 p.m. ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Abstract
Health inequities are persistent in the United States. A widening socioeconomic gap, extensive poverty, and multi-level racism, discrimination, and segregation contribute to inequitable distribution of healthcare, resources, and a significant disparity in mental and physical health outcomes among Latino and other population groups. In a society characterized by income segregation and information “bubbles,” it is easy for those who are more fortunate and/or whose hard work has been amply rewarded to fail to perceive the degree of suffering that is experienced by those who do not share their affluence. There is growing evidence that the ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Implicit Bias Training Programs
Mitigating implicit bias and promoting inclusivity “is a long-term goal requiring constant attention and repetition and a combination of general strategies that can have a positive influence across all groups of people affected by bias,” and can overlap between domains, according to Marcelin et al. and other researchers (see figure).43,74 Implicit bias training programs, such as those designed by the Kirwan Institute of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, also aim to improve intergroup attitudes and relations, by “rewiring” subconscious associations. The Kirwan Institute has made the first set of ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Why Social Cohesion is Important
The far-reaching effects of poverty have been well documented; the material hardships associated with poverty, including food insecurity and difficulty meeting basic medical and housing needs, lead to worse health outcomes.86 An inability to provide for family members leads to parental stress, which compromises marital and parent-child relationships due to a reduced capacity for warm and responsive interactions. The chaotic home lives and the community conditions characteristic of low SES areas — such as community violence and substandard housing — are linked to worse socioemotional outcomes for children. Poorer ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
More Research is Needed on a Cohesive Culture
It is important to research the relationship between socioeconomic status and education to identify and reduce the risk factors through the improvement of school systems and the development of intervention programs.5,10 Additional studies are also needed to examine the relationships between implicit bias and health care outcomes. This will provide vital information for the development of interventions that target these implicit biases, which have been shown to contribute to disparities in health care between whites and minority groups such as Latinos. This implicit bias influences individuals’ behavior ...
This is part of the Salud America! Achieving a Cohesive Culture for Health Equity in Latino and All Communities: A Research Review»
Disparities in Poverty Exist across Geography
Disparities in poverty rates also exist across geography: child poverty rates are highest in rural counties, at 23.2%, compared to large urban metro areas (21.2%), smaller metro areas (20.5%), and suburban counties (14.5%). Race/ethnicity and geography intersect as well. The poverty rate among black and Latino children in suburban counties is higher than it is for white children in rural counties.10
The Latino Poverty Rate in Rural Areas
Most of the U.S. Latino population was concentrated in the Southwest until the 1990s, when Latino immigrants began to migrate to rural areas in the South and Midwestern ...
