How to Tackle Mental Health Issues in Spanish-Speaking Communities



More than 16% of Hispanic adults experienced a mental illness during the previous year, and communities of color are more likely to lack access to care to meet their behavioral health needs, according to federal data. This makes mental health awareness important in Hispanic communities. That's why the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health offer new Spanish-language resources: The website MentalHealth.gov en Español offers access to resources and information about prevention, treatment, and recovery from mental health conditions. The Toolkit for Community Conversations About Mental Health (Diálogos comunitarios acerca de la salud mental) helps communities start vital ...

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Latino Health in Focus: Progress in the Fight Against Breast, Liver, and Colorectal Cancer



Find the latest advances in Latino health—studies on liver cancer rates and colorectal cancer screening, and a promotora’s heartwarming story of survival—in the IHPR Noticias E-newsletter. IHPR Noticias has lots of info on the latest local and national health disparities-related news, resources and events: Story: A Latina Cancer Survivor Makes a Career of Helping Others through Cancer (Pg. 1) Profile: An Aspiring Doctor, Jennifer Garcia-Davalos, Works for Latino Health (Pg. 2) Study: South Texas Latinos Have Nation’s Highest Liver Cancer Rates (Pg. 3) Study: Local Researcher Hopes to Increase Colorectal Cancer Screening (Pg. 4) Story: How to Fix Huge Lack of Hispanics in Clinical Trials (Pg. 6) Story: Food Trucks—Healthy or Junk Food for Latinos (Pg. ...

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Spanish Video: Exploring Options for End-of-Life Care for Hispanics



Cal State Northridge has released a short Spanish-language documentary exploring options for end-of-life care, the Post-Periodical reports. The video, a project by Kyusuk “Stephan” Chung, an associate professor of health administration at Cal State Northridge, is about a dying patient in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease who turned to hospice care so she could spend her last days at home among loved ones. It is entirely in Spanish, designed to educate the Latino community, which may not know that end-of-life care options extend beyond putting a dying loved one in the hospital or family members struggling on their own to care for that person at home. “I have spent more than 10 years researching end-of-life care, and in particular hospice care,” said Chung, according ...

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What You Need to Know about Latinos & Alzheimer’s Disease



Elderly Latinos in the U.S. are 1.5 times more likely than their white peers to develop Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, according to the Alzheimer's Association. But not many know this. Given that the number of Latinos living in the U.S. with Alzheimer's is currently 200,00 and expected to rise to 1.3 million by 2050, this public health issue warrants attention. So, for Alzheimer's & Brain Awareness Month in June, Latina Magazine did a fascinating Q&A with Dr. Romina Rosen of Kaiser Permanente to get expert information on Alzheimer's, and how it affects not only the Latino patient, but caregivers, too. Rosen tackles important questions like: What are some of the early signs of this disease? And how early on does this start to take place before a ...

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Food as Medicine: San Antonio Study Tests Disease- and Cancer-Fighting Foods



A group of breast cancer survivors gathered in San Antonio on Tuesday, June 17, 2014, to hear a lecture and cooking demonstration about how certain foods may reduce the risk of cancer recurrence — deliciously. The women are participants in the study Rx for Better Breast Health. As a part of the study, this group will attend several lectures by study co-principal investigator Dr. Michael Wargovich of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, combined with cooking demonstrations by Chef Iverson Brownell, who creates innovative culinary recipes that taste great and promote health. Read or watch a WOAI-TV report about the event. To see if you qualify for the study, call 210-562-6579 “We want to teach survivors the importance of a dietary plan full of foods with ...

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Study: Delinquent Youth, Especially Hispanics, Face Higher Risk of Violent Death as Adults



Delinquent youth face a significantly increased risk for a violent death when they're adults, a new study finds, HealthDay reports. This finding is especially true for delinquent Hispanics, teens, and girls. The study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, found that the rate of violent death among delinquent Hispanic females and males were nine and five times higher, respectively, than in the general population. "Our findings are shocking," study author Linda Teplin, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University, said in a university news release, HealthDay reports. "Death rates in our sample of delinquent youth, ages 15 to 19, are nearly twice those of troops in combat in wartime Iraq and Afghanistan." "Early violent death is a health ...

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New Spanish Website Aims to Mobilize Mothers to Take Action on Women’s Issues



Check out the new MamásConPoder website for Spanish-speaking and bilingual members of MomsRising, a nonprofit advocacy group that educates the public and mobilizes grassroots action for critical women's issues. MomsRising is an on-the-ground and online multicultural organization of more than a million members and more than 100 aligned organizations working to increase family economic security, to end discrimination against women and mothers, and to build a nation where both businesses and families can thrive. MomsRising is also a new media outlet with more than 1,000 bloggers and a combined estimated blogging and social media readership reach to over 3 million people. Read more about the new MamásConPoder campaign in this blog post. If you sign up with the new website in the ...

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How to Reduce the Risk of Summer Heat-Related Illness in Outdoor Workers



Summer is here. And that means increased risk of heat-related illness, not just for pool-going families, but outdoor workers, too. Labor-intensive activities in hot weather can raise body temperatures beyond the level that normally can be cooled by sweating. Heat illness initially may manifest as heat rash or heat cramps, but can quickly escalate to heat exhaustion and then heat stroke if simple preventative measures are not followed. Heat illness disproportionately affects those who have not built up a tolerance to heat (acclimatization), and it is especially dangerous for new and temporary workers. In 2012, there were 31 heat-related worker deaths and 4,120 heat-related worker illnesses. Workers at particular risk are those in outdoor industries, such as agriculture, ...

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Report: Minorities, Especially Latinos, Experience Inequalities in Health, Access to Care



Despite slow improvements in the quality of care overall, access is worsening and health care disparities, particularly for minorities and groups with lower socioeconomic status, have seen little to no improvement, according to a new report. The report, the 11th annual National Healthcare Disparities Report, is conducted annually by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), found that, compared with whites, racial/ethnic minorities receive worse care across 25-40% of quality measures. Poor and low-income people receive worse care than individuals with high income for about 60% of quality measures. These disparities are even more pronounced for measures of health care access, and among particular racial/ethnic groups. Hispanics had worse access to care than Whites ...

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