Minority health

Mental Health Care

South Texas to Benefit from$5.3 Million Grant

Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas Inc. has recently awarded a $5.3 million grant to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The grant will help fund the creation of the South Texas Access to Recovery Program (STAR), and help address the shortage of behavioral and mental health care professionals in the region.

According to Professor Pedro Delgado, M.D., professor and chair of the Dept. of Psychiatry at the Health Science Center, “The need for mental health care professionals in South Texas is immense. Texas has only about half the number of mental health providers per 100,000 residents compared to the national average, and one in 20 South Texans will develop severe mental illness at some time in their life”.

Among the underserved population in South Texas there are very few mental health care professionals who can provide care to the South Texas region and STAR, it is hoped,  will help address these issues.

The grant will also aid the Department of Psychiatry in creating a Community Behavioral Healthcare Track in which two psychiatry residents each year will be admitted to this new track within the four year residence program.

The School of Nursing will collaborate on the grant as well, and scholarships will be provided for psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner students.

To view the news article by Rosanne Fohn in its entirety, please click the link below:

http://www.uthscsa.edu/hscnews/singleformat.asp?newID=3964

Posted in Funding Opportunities, Hispanic health, Minority health, News, South Texas, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off

Mental Health Services for Migrant Farmworkers

Last week the 20th annual Midwest Stream Farmworker Health Forum was held in Austin, with several speakers highlighting the need for improved access to mental health services. “Immigration is a mental health issue because it puts so much stress on parents and families,” according to Roger Rosenthal, director of the Migrant Legal Action Program (as reported in BataviaNews.com).  A search of PubMed found an article in the American Journal of Public Health published in 2000, but otherwise there appears to be limited evidence of research in this area.

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Mexicans Migrating to U.S. Face Greater Mental Health Problems

Are there greater mental health problems awaiting those who emigrate from Mexico to the United States compared to those who stay in Mexico?  A recent study involving 550 Mexican-born migrants and 2,500 Mexicans who lived in their home country, points to that conclusion.  According to Associate Professor Joshua Breslau, of the UC Davis School of Medicine and researcher with the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, “The results suggest that after migrating from Mexico to the U.S., migrants are more likely to develop significant mental-health problems than individuals who remained in Mexico.”   The greatest risk seems to be to those individuals 18-25 years of age, who migrate to the United States.  They are four-and-a-half times more likely to suffer depression and three-and-a-half times more likely to suffer anxiety than those who remained in Mexico.  Previous studies have shown that acculturation into American society is the cause of the deteriorating mental health.

Posted in Hispanic health, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off

Muevete USA: combatting obesity among Hispanic youth

Hispanic nursing students from San Antonio, Edinburg, Brownsville, Phoenix, and Chicago, all member of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) are participating in the Muevete USA training curriculum.  Through the curriculum, they will develop the skills necessary to become trainer-influencers to their communities, educating Hispanic youth and their families on the lifelong effects of childhood and adult obesity and to spread the message of benefitting from healthy choices in diet and exercise. 

Norma Martinez Rogers, a professor of family and community health systems at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio (UTHSC), is the project director.  The training curriculum will use a program called “Healthy Choices for Kids,” which is a summer camp run by medical and nursing students from UTHSC as a model of outreach in the five cities.  Student interaction with children and their families may be part of afterschool programs, church programs, or outdoor meetings.  The program will be implemented wherever there are children determined to be at risk for obesity.  Thirty-five students from the participating cities and from Los Angeles gathered in San Antonio on March 5-6 to learn about Muevete USA.  This program is funded through a generous grant from The Coca Cola Foundation, and Dr. Rogers said that this is the first time that the foundation has partnered with Hispanic nurses in their effects to combat obesity in Latino youth.

Posted in Minority health, Staying Well. Connected., Youth | Comments Off

NCLR’s Profiles of Latino Health

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is compiling information in response to 12 questions related to Latino/Hispanic health and their interactions with the health care system in the United States. The first five are available from their website now.

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New ADHD Research

The National Alliance for Hispanic Health has “released findings from a national survey of Hispanic and non-Hispanic parents investigating potential barriers to diagnosis and treatment of ADHD, as well as parents’ awareness and perception of ADHD treatment.” The information can be found under the Alliance News section of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health site.

Posted in Hispanic health, Reports, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off

New CDC report on HIV infection in Hispanics

A new report from the CDC is especially relevant on this National Latino AIDS Awareness Day. According to author Dr. Ken Dominguez, “The rate of HIV diagnosis for Hispanic males is about three times higher than the rate among white males. And for Hispanic females, it’s about five times higher than among white females.”

Among Hispanics with HIV, the means of infection varies widely. Much of the variation actually depends on where they were born: Mexican-born Hispanic injection-drug users were less knowledgeable about HIV and AIDS than their US-born counterparts, and Mexican-born men were more likely to be infected through male-to-male sexual contact. These and other findings can help focus prevention efforts in the right areas for specific populations.

Dr. Dominguez’s comments are available as a podcast. The full report is available on the CDC website in English.

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New Issue of Salud

The fall issue of the bilingual NIH MedlinePlus Salud magazine is now available. One of the articles in this issue is a profile of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at the age of 8.

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New Media Tools and HIV/AIDS Education

In recognition of World AIDS Day December 1st…

The CDC estimates that although Latinos represent only 15% of the U.S. population, they make up 17% of new HIV infections. “An HIV/AIDS among Latinos/Hispanics” tip sheet is available at: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/hispanics/resources/factsheets/hispanic.htm

New technologies are being utilized by health professionals to reach the community with HIV information. A federal blog launched in 2006 serves as a gateway for information on using new media- podcasts, blogs, wikis- in response to HIV/AIDS. The purpose of this blog is to help improve prevention, treatment and research by providing a public forum. Blog posts include information about reaching the Latino population and creating culturally appropriate health education material.

This blog is maintained by AIDS.gov, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Web site dedicated to providing federal HIV/AIDS information. To read the blog, visit:

http://blog.aids.gov/

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Posted in Hispanic health, Staying Well. Connected. | Comments Off

New MedlinePlus Page on Health Disparities

MedlinePlus.gov now has a topic page devoted to health disparities. The page includes links to recent reports, statistics, federal agencies and the latest news related to disparities in health.

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