183812 Perspectives and experiences of Cape Verdean women health promoters on institutional barriers and strategies to promoting women's health

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Maria De Jesus, PhD , Department of Society, Human Development, and Health and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Center for COmmunity-Based Research, Harvard School of Public Health, Brighton, MA
A CHW WILL BE CO-PRESENTING AT THE MEETING. THE CHW WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN DEVELOPING THE ABSTRACT, FORMAT AND CONTENT OF THE OF THE PRESENTATION

Background: While an increasing number of health researchers are targeting immigrant ethnic women who are disproportionately affected by negative health outcomes, little is known about the barriers faced by Cape Verdean women health promoters who work with Cape Verdean immigrant women in their community and serve as liaisons with the health care system.

Methods: In-depth, open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Cape Verdean women health promoters to explore their perspectives on barriers to health promotion.

Results: Findings reveal how their health promotion practice is influenced by a host of cultural, contextual, and institutional barriers, including gender power imbalances, cultural taboos, insufficient program funding, restrictive policies, and a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate health resources.

Discussion: A complete and effective model of health promotion must embrace not only individual-level factors, but also macro-level factors, thus emphasizing the need for institutional and structural change in order to enhance immigrant women's health.

Learning Objectives:
1. To recognize health promoters as integral health professionals who promote health among groups that have traditionally been denied adequate health care and work for a more equitable distribution of health services. 2. To describe the barriers faced by health promoters in their health promotion practice with immigrant women, in particular Cape Verdean immigrant women who remain a rather invisible ethnic group in the United States, but have a considerable and growing presence in New England. 3. To describe the strategies adopted by health promoters in overcoming the barriers to their health promotion practice with immigrant women.

Keywords: Ethnic Minorities, Health Care Advocates

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: PhD Psychology Yerby Post doc research fellow at Harvard School of Public Health
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.

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