Volunteering for Christmas and New Year's helps other people and is proven to give the volunteer an emotional boost, too. So why not volunteer your "voice"? Speak up with these six actions to promote health equity for Latino and all families this holiday season!
1. Start ‘Handle With Care’ So Police Alert Schools if Kids Are Exposed to Trauma!
60% of U.S. children have been exposed to violence, crime, or abuse. These kids still have to go to class. They carry a burden of trauma that can interfere with their behavior and grades. And schools don’t know there’s an issue at home. Enter “Handle With Care.” Download the free Salud America! “Handle With Care Action Pack” to start a Handle With Care program. In the program, police notify schools when they ...
Bill Hayward learned a disturbing truth when he ventured into the crawlspace underneath his home. For a year, he, his wife Adriana, and other members of their family experienced consistent migraines, mood swings, extreme fatigue, flu-like symptoms, and a host of other health problems — with no root-cause explanation. They sought help from experts and professionals alike to no avail. Using a last-ditch, do-it-yourself test, Bill discovered their home itself was full of mold and that it was responsible for their symptoms. "It's terrifying and heartbreaking," Adriana said. "I felt really hopeless; the medical profession not really knowing what to do with it and dismissing it. It was just a very dark and sad time for our family." Mold and other environmental factors can lead ...
They say a picture can illustrate what at times words cannot. That is what drove Jayme Hannay to lead a decade-long project that encouraged teen empowerment, advocacy, and healthy change in New Britain, Connecticut — Photovoice. Hannay and her team teach local teens about photography, but for an ethical cause: Showcase how the local environment contributes to health issues, and spur solutions. With core support from the Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children Program and a research grant from Salud America!, they launched the Healthy Tomorrows for Teens project. “Photovoice can expedite policy change because it makes community members co-researchers in assessing their environment and allows for rapid translation of their findings into action," said Hannay, a project ...
Like the bright velas (candles) her grandmother lit as a sign of her strong Catholic faith, Stacy Cantu-Pawlik is shining as a researcher and advocate for Latino health equity. Cantu-Pawlik is a senior research area specialist at the Institute of Health Promotion at UT Health San Antonio, where she serves as a digital content curator for the Salud America! program. She creates content that promotes healthy change, such as stories about mental health heroes and campaigns to improve healthcare. Read Cantu-Pawlik’s stories! Cantu-Pawlik, who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, focused graduate research on environmental factors and elevated cancer incidence in South Texas. Her experiences growing up in the Rio ...
People with wealth often enjoy good health. People who live in poverty often suffer worse health. This income inequity is simple on the surface. But it has layers of complexity that unfold differently for different people, especially Latinos who face large wage gaps and health issues and warrants action from across sectors to promote health equity. Here is a deep dive into income inequity and Latino health. Why Do Wealth Gaps & Income Inequity Occur? The reasons for wealth gaps are complex. Systemic under-investment is a contributing factor, some experts say. "The 'neo-materialist' hypothesis suggests there is systematic under-investment in social infrastructure and services in more unequal societies," writes Sharon Friel for The Conversation. "Social ...
In 2006, Dr. Susan E. Pacheco experienced a stark paradigm-shift due to an inconvenient truth. She learned that the Earth—and those who inhabit it—could experience destruction and devastation at the hands of climate change. Once Pacheco gained that understanding, she says the only thing left to do was to act. “It’s just the knowledge,” Pacheco said. “Just knowing that this is happening and that medical students, residents, and doctors don’t have the benefit of that knowledge. I have to do something. I just can’t sit and keep this knowledge to myself. “That’s why I’ve been so engaged in educational activities that have to do with climate education because it cannot be ignored.”
Introduction to Helping others Through Healthcare
Pacheco is one of the few ...
A majority-Latino community is among the five winners of the 2019 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Culture of Health Prize! Gonzales, Calif. (94% Latino), was chosen from nearly 200 applicants. Two other cities with large Latino populations—Lake County, Colo. (36% Latino) and Broward County, Fla. (30% Latino)—also won the health prize. Greenville County, S.C., and Sitka, Alaska, also received the prize. These communities made strong efforts to build a culture of health, where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. They brought neighborhood, school, and business partners together to improve health for all residents. Winning communities get a $25,000 prize. "The 2019 RWJF Culture of Health Prize winners recognize that health is about ...
Having a quality, affordable home can unlock good health for people. The problem is that quality housing is far from the reach of many populations, including Latinos and those living in poverty or homelessness. In fact, low-quality housing can lead to asthma, lead poisoning, mental health issues, and hospitalizations. Let’s use #SaludTues on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019, to tweet how to promote health as a top priority in the development and preservation of affordable homes and to elevate homes as a tool for improving resident and community health! WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: Health Begins With Home
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludAmerica
CO-HOST: Enterprise Community Partners ...
Do you know how roadways are graded? Most transportation indicators grade based on the level of motor vehicle traffic on a road, with little consideration for people walking, bike or taking transit, and vehicle travel. This leads planners to design car-focused roads that neglect transit and non-motorized travel, which is counterproductive to social, environmental, and health goals. Using level of service (LOS), for example, to assess road performance tends to expand roadways and increase vehicular speeds to benefit cars and trucks only. This ends up enabling more vehicle travel and reducing feasibility of walking, biking, and busing. That’s why five early-adopter cities in California transitioned away from a narrow focus on moving as many cars as fast as possible, to a more ...
