Addressing health disparities among latinos: Innovative academic-community partnerships

HIV/AIDS and substance abuse (HIV/SA) health disparities are on the rise among Latinas. Nationally, the rate of HIV infection among Latinas is over four times higher than that on White women. A lack of culturally-tailored conceptual models and interventions lead Latinas to perceive the health care system as culturally insensitive, often resulting in disproportionately lower engagement in treatment and prevention efforts among this population. Florida International University's Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (FIU-CRUSADA) has established innovative academic/community partnerships with the Latino community of Miami Dade County Florida, the county with highest rates of new HIV infection in the United States. The purpose of these partnerships is to build and sustain capacity in responding to the HIV/SA epidemic at the local level. Through fostering equitable and inclusive collaborations we are currently: (a) Developing a community action plan for preventing HIV/SA among Latinas by improving access to prevention programs in these communities; (b) Increasing the capacity of Latinas to respond to the HIV epidemic locally by providing these women the necessary skills to educate and empower themselves and other women in their community; and (c) provided meaningful opportunities for Latino community members to be involved in developing culturally relevant and linguistically appropriate HIV/SA prevention programs. Methods, challenges, and lessons learned in establishing sustainable and effective academic-community partnerships will be presented. Through these collaborations we aspire to improve the health status of Latina women, with a particular emphasis on reducing/eliminating HIV/SA health disparities in this population.