Cruz on minority health

As the ancient Roman poet Virgil wisely observed, “The greatest wealth is health.” However, health is an issue that usually is approached reactively—not proactively— by Hispanic older adults because they simply face too many competing basic needs. This presents a challenge when it comes to health promotion among Latino seniors. Telling them to “eat healthy” or “do more exercise” is meaningless when food insecurity, hunger, chronic disease and transportation are top of mind. Hispanic older adults also tend to feel overwhelmed and confused by healthcare systems and programs either due to language proficiency and/or health literacy issues. This makes explaining how Medicare works or fraud prevention or showing Latino seniors how to sign up for SNAP benefits is challenging at best. Therefore, NHCOA’s approach to our health programming places emphasis on culturally and linguistically appropriate practices that promote health literacy and awareness, followed up with prevention and management. In our decades of experience working with Hispanic older adults, we know that the first step in approaching this hard-to-reach population is bridging the cultural and linguistic gap. Latino seniors tend to be isolated and unaffected by mainstream practices, which is why a lot of up-front personalized outreach is imperative to create a relationship based on trust and respect. Outreach must be conducted in Spanish and largely based on the premise that health is a family affair,...
Source: PHRMA - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news