The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #39701

Lenora J. Sherard, MPH¹, Aurelia M. Moore, BS, RN¹, Joan L. Glick, RN, MSN, PNP¹, and Mary L. Beane, BSN, MA². (1) Department of Health and Human Services, Montgomery County Government, Health Promotion & Prevention Office, 2424 Reedie Drive, Suite 238, Wheaton, MD 20902, 240-777-1708, hhs.sheral@co.mo.md.us, (2) Montgomery County Government, Department of Health and Human Services, 1335 Piccard Drive, Rockville, MD 20850

Montgomery County, Maryland has a growing population that is increasingly diverse. Over 15% of the population is African American, 11% is Hispanic/Latino and 11% Asian. Over 40% of Maryland's Latino population lives in Montgomery County. The health status of Montgomery County residents is better for most indicators than the state and the nation. However, growing numbers of residents are without health insurance and significant health disparities exist between population groups in the country. An increasing number of families are low income and have language and cultural barriers. A large proportion of Latinos in the county experience problems with immigration status, poverty, lack of health insurance, low educational levels, and linguistic and cultural isolation - contributing to risk of poor health status. The County Dept. of Health and Human Services implemented a program to recruit and train lay community members to reach out to their families and neighbors with information about available health services and healthy lifestyle practices that would help reduce existing health disparities. The program began in 1998 training Latino health promoters. Since then, an increasing number of county programs are collaborating and successfully including multicultural community health promoters in their outreach activities.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe how Latino residents, using culturally competent methods, can help new immigrants learn about and adopt preventive health practices.
• To identify successful methods for engaging multicultural residents in assisting their neighbors to gain access to and appropriately use available health services.

Keywords: Community Health Promoters, Access to Health Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Health and Human Services
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I am employed by the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services