Equitable transportation that is safe, affordable, and reliable can boost a person’s health and social mobility. But too often, public money pays for projects that widen historical gaps in access to transportation options for communities of color. Latinos, for example, face many transportation inequities that cut off connections to health-promoting assets─like affordable housing, green spaces, and medical care. This also makes it harder to lead healthy lives, according to a Salud America! research review, The State of Latino Housing, Transportation, and Green Space. That’s why we at Salud America! are spotlighting three Salud Heroes who are pushing forward for equitable transportation for Latinos and all people!
Minerva Perez’s Free Ride Program Helps Latinos Overcome ...
Nearly one-third of children ages 10-12 screened positive for suicide risk during an emergency room visit, some even if they came in for a physical health issue, according to a new study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Typically, suicidal thoughts and behaviors are seen in older teens. "It was troubling to see that so many preteens screened positive for suicide risk, and we were alarmed to find that many of them had acted on their suicidal thoughts in the past,” Dr. Lisa Horowitz, a clinical scientist with NIMH, part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a press release. “This study shows that children as young as 10 who show up in the emergency department may be thinking about suicide."
Study Examined Preteens in ER Visits
Researchers studied 79 ...
How can school leaders address early-life trauma among their students, improve academic and behavioral outcomes, and reduce harsh disciplinary action? Check out Nashville’s trauma-sensitive revolution. Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) (23% Latino) has spent the past six years integrating trauma-informed practices, such as social and emotional learning and restorative discipline, to help students feel supported and understood, Edutopia reports. They even hired a full-time trauma-informed coordinator. “Our ability to accelerate achievement in the future is dependent on meeting the social and emotional learning needs of our students,” MNPS Director of Schools Shawn Joseph told The Tennessean. “We expect it, and the students deserve it.”
The Need to Address Trauma ...
The Salud America! team, along with Dr. Colleen Bridger of San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and Dr. Joe Hendershott of Hope for the Wounded Student, believe that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) should be is own topic as part of Healthy People 2030. Below is our full proposed ACEs topic, description, objectives, and rationale. Click here to email this request to make ACEs its own topic to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by Jan. 17, 2019.
Proposed Topic Area: Adverse Childhood Experiences
An adverse childhood experience (ACE) is a stressful or traumatic experience during childhood that can impact lifelong health and well-being. Early adversity, including child maltreatment, family member substance abuse, discrimination, and chronic poverty, can be ...
Dr. Heyman Oo treated a lot of traumatized child immigrants while a pediatric resident at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and now as pediatrician at a California clinic system. Oo knows these kids often face extreme poverty before immigration. After, they face parental separation, detention, and discrimination. No wonder they also suffer stress, depression, and other mental health issues, and are at risk for dropping out of school and absenteeism, according to a Salud America! research review. Oo wanted to help. She joined a task force designed to support children amid a growing number of unaccompanied minors being apprehended at the California border, which led to a big change.
Unaccompanied Minors In 2014, more than 68,000 unaccompanied immigrant minors were ...
Minerva Perez hates bullies. In elementary school, Perez did not like when bullies picked on her friends. She became their bodyguard. Today, Perez is standing up to a modern bully—transportation barriers. Limited access to public transportation is bullying Latino families into skipping medical appointments, instilling big fears of deportation, and jeopardizing health in Suffolk County, N.Y. (19.5% Latino). Perez is taking action as leader of Organización Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island. She helped create a unique free van ride program that bridges transportation gaps. It also gives her an advocacy platform to improve public transportation at the local level. How did Perez do it? Is it working?
A 3-Hour Bus Ride
Getting around in Suffolk County isn't ...
In the past decade, the National Dropout Prevention Center has aired 99 free webcasts to push for school success and dropout prevention. The 100th webcast, will feature John Hernandez, a Salud America! Salud Hero extraordinaire, on Aug. 14, 2018. Hernandez is the director of student services at East Central Independent School District (ECISD) in San Antonio, TX (68% Latino). He began to uncover that the reasons for student absenteeism went beyond Texas' at-risk indicators—a parent in jail or in hospice, loss of a loved one, immigration or deportation of family members, bullying, food insecurity, unstable housing arrangements, divorce, and many more. So Hernandez started got the support of the ECISD superintendent and started a committee to address these ...
"Will they think I’m crazy? Will they think my child is crazy?" Parents and kids worry what other people will think if they talk about childhood mental health issues. Negative stigma often keeps them from seeking help. This isn't news to Michele Brown, vice president of marketing and development at Clarity Children’s Guidance Center in San Antonio, Texas (63.7% Latino). Brown knows the shocking stats all too well: 1 in 5 kids suffer from mental illness.
Of those, only 1 in 5 receives treatment. These stats spurred Clarity's "1 in 5 Minds" campaign to share stories, counter mental health stigma, and boost support, Brown said.
The Problem of Mental Health Stigma
Stigma is when someone, or even you yourself, views a person in a negative way just because they have a ...
Latinos comprise almost half of all youth in Austin, Texas. These kids are more likely than their peers to deal with mental health issues, from fear of being deported to bullying to financial stress, according to a Salud America! Research Review. And, sadly, these issues go largely untreated. One group—The Austin Child Guidance Center—took notice and is trying to make a positive change. “We’ve just been seeing a lot more fear and a general sense of unpredictability, which raises everybody’s anxiety level,” Julia Hoke, director of psychological services for the Austin Child Guidance Center, told the Austin American Statesman. “We want to be a counterpoint to that.”
The Austin Child Guidance Center
The center started a task force to meet the needs of their ...
