 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Luz Gonzalez, MS, MBA, Hispanos Unidos, Inc., 116 Sherman Avenue, Ist. Floor, New Haven, CT 06511, 230-781-0226, hunidos@yahoo.com
In 2000, Hispanics represented 13% of the U.S. population (including residents of Puerto Rico), but accounted for 19% of the total number of new U.S. AIDS cases reported that year (8,173 of 42,156 cases) (CDC, 2002). Hispanos Unidos, Inc (Nuevos Horizontes) is a culturally relevant mental health program targeting Hispanics living in New Haven, Connecticut. The program has the distinction of being the lead Hispanic agency in their community. As a Hispanic organization, Nuevos Horizontes includes aspects of psychosocial support networks specifically targeting the needs of Hispanic individuals. These include cultural and linguistic familiarity and service coordination.
The proposed presentation by Nuevos Horizontes will discuss: (1) the definition of cultural competence as it relates to Hispanics/Latinos living in New Haven, Connecticut; (2) building cultural competence into the organizational and programmatic structure; (3) using culturally competent evaluation to assess the success of our approaches; (4) recognizing the importance of the consumer advisory board; (5) the use of folk healers (curaderos, herbalistas or espiritistas) as alternatives to mental health treatment and; (6) the use of Hispanic/Latino (a) staff to strengthen the model and provide culturally competent and linguistically appropriate services.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Mental Health Services, Cultural Competency
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.