291767
Latino community accessing healthcare through the ventanilla de salud movil in southwest Kansas
Yazmin Reyna,
Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
Paula Cupertino, PhD,
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
The Affordable Care Act, which will greatly expand access to the medical care services will not cover Latino recent immigrants and will not ensure physicians where the need is the greatest. Drawn by opportunities in service, agriculture, and meatpacking industries, Latinos have become the fastest growing minority group in the rural counties in the Midwest. The objective is to empower rural Latinos with access to preventive health screening and knowledge to work as equal partners in the development and implementation of culturally relevant interventions that will reduce the burden of lack of health access in their communities. We developed a community-based, participatory research (CBPR) program that involves partnerships between academic institutions, community health workers, and the Ventanilla de Salud program with local Mexican Consulate. Trained Promotoras de Salud partner with medical providers to disseminate the culturally relevant health education, conduct health screenings, and provide follow-up case management. During 2012, 1,031 participants attended the VDS mobile events. Participants were mainly Hispanic(94%), uninsured(71%), between 18-50 years old(75%), and recent immigrants(33.7%). The screenings identified: 67.3% of the participants are overweight or obese, 26% have high blood pressure, and 15.4% were diabetic or pre-diabetic. A total of 22 Promotoras de Salud completed three educational sessions on Cancer and Cancer Clinical Trials. Trained Promotoras de Salud provided culturally-sensitive educational material to approximately 500 participants and follow-up with participants at high risk. By accessing healthcare we will be able to improve the overall health, identify community's health needs, and eliminate the existing health disparities among Latinos in Southwest Kansas.
Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate the importance of increasing access to health screenings and knowledge to recent Latino immigrants.
Evaluate the usage of community-based participatory research as a model to implement health promotion in the Latino population.
Assess the need of access to preventive healthcare in the Latino population in the Midwest.
Keyword(s): Access to Health Care, Latinos
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Bilingual Graduate Research Assistant at Juntos Center for Advancing Latino Health. I have been engaged on projects, which aims to implement a community health worker program in the rural communities in Southwest Kansas. I have collaborated closely in the development of a Cancer 101 and Clinical Trial curriculums for community health workers. In addition I was involved in the organization and management of the Ventanilla de Salud Móvil.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines,
and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed
in my presentation.
