Designing Programs to Meet Health Needs of Immigrant and Undocumented Individuals: A Collaborative Approach

Latinos in the Pacific Northwest include large numbers of immigrants and undocumented individual. Collecting information about their health conditions, needs, and interests presents unique challenges to researchers and public health professionals. Language and cultural differences complicate these efforts. In an attempt to overcome these difficulties, we formed a community-based collaborative research (CBCR) team made up of community, health agency, and academic partners. Our purpose was to assess dimensions of chronic illness, health behaviors, coping mechanisms, and interest in health promotion/intervention programs among Latinos in Oregon, and to identify and deliver programs appropriate to this community's needs and circumstances. This session will discuss the findings from the project.

Our CBCR approach (CBCR process, convenience sampling, extensive outreach activities, and use of trained community surveyors) utilized surveys and focus groups, which opened access to an otherwise hard-to-reach population. Interviews at churches, labor camps, vineyards, Latino grocery stores, and community events enabled us to gain important information about this population. Our findings, based on 588 completed surveys, show participants to be living and working with high levels of pain, worrying a great deal about their health, using a variety of over-the-counter pain medications and a number of home remedies, often relying on family and friends and prayer for help. Because over 70 percent of those surveyed lack health insurance, they reported searching for support and remedies. Over 80 percent of those surveyed are willing to try promising programs to improve their conditions. Programs consistent with the finding are being implemented.