Serving the underserved: Improving pediatric environmental health outreach to Spanish speaking populations

The Region II Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) provides clinical consultations and educational outreach to families, health care professionals, public health officials, policy-makers and community organizations throughout New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. According to the U.S. Census 2000, the Region II population is comprised of more than 26% Spanish-speaking individuals – a percentage that is not reflected in the services provided by the Region II PEHSU. In an effort to close this gap, the PEHSU along with the CDC Fellowship in Environmental Public Health Leadership, have developed a project model to increase outreach activities to our Spanish-speaking population. The initial descriptive investigation examines historical calls and outreach events from the PEHSU client services database. This data will be used to develop maps, illustrating PEHSU utilization trends over the last several years and facilitating the evaluation of interventions. A qualitative portion of this project uses focus groups comprised of Spanish speakers from Region II to identify their needs and barriers to accessing PEHSU services. Focus group participants will review PEHSU marketing strategy and educational materials to enhance cultural competency. The goal of this project are two-fold: first, to provide capacity building through mobilizing community partnerships and collaborating with government and non-government sectors and second, to create a model of service expansion to underserved communities that can be used at other PEHSU sites both nationally and internationally.