Quality housing can make a surprisingly big difference for your physical and mental health. A new study from the United Kingdom links housing tenure, type, cost burden, and desire to stay in current home to C-reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker in the bloodstream associated with infection and stress. Higher levels of CRP—meaning more stress and bad health—were found in people who rented homes. "The poorer health of private renters in our study may reflect the average lower quality of homes in the sector," wrote Drs. Amy Clair and Amanda Hughes, the study authors, in an article in The Conversation. "Private rented homes, for example, are more likely to have damp than social rented or owner occupied homes, and less likely to have central heating."
Housing Cost Burden & ...
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and rates have drastically increased across the country in the last 20 years. Rates are even worse for Latino and all rural residents. From 2001-2015, rural areas have consistently had higher rates of suicide than metropolitan areas. “While we’ve seen many causes of death come down in recent years, suicide rates have increased more than 20 percent from 2001 to 2015. And this is especially concerning in rural areas,” said CDC Director Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D. “We need proven prevention efforts to help stop these deaths and the terrible pain and loss they cause.” Students at West Virginia University and the University of South Dakota recognized the problem and wanted to be proactive.
Students Making ...
Struggling with behavioral or mental health issues? If you're in the Rio Grande Valley (~90% Latino), there is a phone number you can call to get help. The Hope Family Health Center in McAllen, Texas has launched a new service: A Peer Run Warm Line. This resource is for those in the community who are experiencing depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, or any other non-crisis, non-emergency ailment to their everyday living. The Warm Line launched on January 21, 2019. "There may be somebody that will be going through a crisis or close to a crisis and need somebody to talk to and [they're] isolated and don’t want to call the hospital for help or don’t have the resource," Rebecca Stocker, leader of Hope Family Health Center in McAllen, told The Monitor. "They can ...
Latinos are more likely than their peers to have mental health issues, which usually go unaddressed and untreated, according to a Salud America! research review. And with today’s anti-immigrant climate, the mental health of Latinos continues to suffer. Fear of deportation, mainly those in immigrant communities, is one of the main reasons mental health goes untreated. But there’s good news! Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital's Disparities Research Unit have tested a novel preventive intervention designed to provide tailored treatment for Latino immigrants with both mental health and substance misuse symptoms, according to a press release. This research is a collaboration between teams in Spain, U.S. and Puerto Rico. "We know that Latino patients benefit when ...
Stressed-out and down this holiday season? You might have the "holiday blues." These are temporary feelings of depression associated with the extra stress, financial constraints, and unrealistic expectations of the season. These can harm long-term mental health. You might have "seasonal affective disorder." This is a seasonal depression that happens at the same time every year as the season change, such as the bleak wintertime months. These conditions are especially worrisome for people who suffer high rates of mental health issues. Latinos, for example, already face higher rates of depressive symptoms than many of their peers. Fewer Latinos than whites say their child had ever used mental health care services, according to a Salud America! research review. So what can you ...
The holidays can be a season for family, friends, and festivities. But this time also can bring stress, anxiety, and depression. Financial and gift-giving burdens rise. The calendar gets jammed with travel, social gatherings, or loneliness for those who can’t meet with friends and family. This is bad news especially for Latino and other minority groups who already suffer higher rates of mental health issues than their peers. On Twitter, let's use #SaludTues on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018, to share tips, stories, and resources to help Latino and all people manage and fortify their mental health and self-care this holiday season: WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Fortify Mental Health for the Holidays”
TIME / DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, 12/18/18
WHERE: On ...
Fear. Of being deported. Losing homes. Losing children. Minvera Perez knows Latino immigrants live in constant fear in East Hampton, N.Y. (17.1% Latino), which stresses these parents and kids—not to mention harming their physical and mental health. Perez wanted to help. How could she overcome Latino families' grim fears and stresses, and ease their mental health burden?
Levels of Fear
Perez is executive director of Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island (OLA). OLA promotes cultural, social, economic, and educational development within Long Island’s East End Latino communities, specifically Suffolk County, N.Y. (19.5% Latino). Perez and OLA are speaking up for social justice for Latino immigrants. "Right now, Latino members in our community need ...
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 ...
People these days are talking about mental health more than ever before, from real mothers to nonprofit groups to NBA stars to entire TV shows. But it's not always clear how to start your own mental health journey. This is especially unclear among Latinos, who face higher rates of depressive symptoms than many of their peers. And fewer Latinos (8%) than whites (14%) reported that their child had ever used mental health care services, according to a Salud America! research review. "If you’re just embarking on your mental health journey, it’s a scary and stressful time," writes Joe Rodriguez of remezcla.com.
6 Big Tips
Rodriguez talked with Latina mental health activist Dior Vargas (formerly of Project UROK) and therapist Omar Torres to create a six-step guide to "help you ...
