Latino Mental Health

LATINO PERPECTIVES

Latino Mental Health - One Year Later: Creeping Towards Progress

In December 2006, HDANJ in collaboration with the New Jersey Mental Health Institute released revised recommendations needed to improve access and quality of mental health services to the Latino community. Read full report.

December 18, 2006 - Press Release: HDANJ Issues Report on Mental Health for Latinos Noting Few Improvements in State System

Time for Action Improving Mental Health Services for the Latino Community

Hispanic Directors worked in collaboration with the New Jersey Mental Health Institute in 2005 to release a report on recommendations to increase access of mental health services for Latinos. Latino Perspectives is a series of issue oriented reports presented by HDANJ and supported through the Latino CORE Initiative. Read full report.

The Hispanic Directors Association of New Jersey in conjunction with PROCEED, Inc. in Elizabeth and the Department of Health of New Jersey’s Division of HIV Prevention and Control are presently working together in the development of a public campaign focused on creating awareness and promoting the importance of being tested for HIV in this state.

One out of 184 Hispanics in New Jersey have HIV. In order to effectively communicate with Hispanics that need to listen to this message, it is critical to develop a campaign specifically designed for Hispanics and, thus, be able to create community ties in which Hispanics feel comfortable receiving information regarding counseling and testing for HIV.

The goal of our program is to increase the number of Hispanic women receiving counseling and testing for HIV in order to fight against this epidemic occurrence in New Jersey.

During this campaign, three cities, in which the number of Hispanic women with HIV has increased alarmingly, will be working with us performing community activities to communicate and promote the importance of HIV testing. These cities are Newark, Elizabeth and Camden.

For more information, please contact Cuqui Rivera at 732-828-7606.

HIV Latina Social Marketing Campaign (Phase 2)

Read HIV Campaign Report (Phase 2)

Respectfully Submitted. Anna "Cuqui" Rivera

From July 1st, 2003 to December 31st, 2003

The Hispanic Directors Association of New Jersey (HDANJ), PROCEED and the NJ Department of Health & Senior Services continued into the 2nd phase of the HIV Latino Social Marketing campaign. Due to our successes in the "Mujer Toma Control/Woman Take Control" campaign, this partnership decided to outreach deeper into the Latino community for reasons of education, networking with the Latino Faith Based Community, and to build better and/or new partnerships to curve this epidemic as effectively as possible. To do this, on July 1st, a statewide Press conference was held at PROCEED, in Elizabeth NJ, to announce our next outreach project entitled:

"Latina Toma Control", A Gathering of the Latino Community in the Fight Aginst HIV/AIDS

This 2-day Gathering took place on December 18 – 19, 2003 at the Wyndam Hotel in Elizabeth NJ. A minimal fee ($20.00) was requested and many scholarships were awarded.

The goal of this event was to further educate the infected/affected Latino population, service providers and the Latino community in general. It was also to reach out directly to the Latino Religious community as well. This served as a valuable and significant opportunity to build ties and services at all levels of this epidemic to reduce the infection rate in the Latino community of NJ and better serve those already living within the reality of HIV/AIDS.

Preparation for this Gathering went on throughout July 2003 to December 2003. A large focus and emphasis was dedicated to specific outreach targeting the Latino Religious community. Religious leadership including the NJ Catholic Conference, The National Latino Coalition of Christian Leaders & Ministers, and the United Chaplains Association among others participated in planning and supported this Gathering. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Planning Councils throughout NJ also assisted in the announcements of the gathering. Many from the network of the HDANJ member agencies attended this event. Good representation from our colleagues in the southern region of NJ traveled to be part of this Gathering. An attendance of 325 participants was recorded at the actual event.

Information was/is posted on the HDANJ website www.HispanicDirectors.org. The NJ Department of Corrections also supported this campaign by airing the Hispanic Horizons UPN9 show in all 14 state penal institutions on their closed, cable-learning channel repeatedly from June 25th through July 2nd, 2003 to a viewing audience of about 30,000. Public Service Announcement’s (PSA’s), a "Latino Toma Control" promotion 30-second video in Spanish aired throughout Spanish language TV and Radio stations 871 times. 22 newspaper ads were placed in a number of Spanish Language newspapers.

A toll free, bilingual Information line (877) TEST-HIV, is now permanently available and home based at PROCEED to draw callers into counseling & testing. The information line informs clients about where to get tested in New Jersey depending on the geographical area where they live at.

Access to Health Care

FALLING SHORT: Time to Keep the FamilyCare Promise
By Raymond J. Castro

New Jersey's program for providing health insurance to low-income children is falling short of its promise-especially for the poorest and for minorities, according to a new report. Falling Short: Time to Keep the FamilyCare Promise, proposes an 8-step action plan to cover more kids and do a better job of attracting federal money available to the state for that purpose. The report was written by NJPP Senior Policy Analyst Raymond J. Castro. For the full report, please visit http://www.njpp.org/rpt_fallingshort.html .

Strategic Plan to Eliminate Health Disparities in New Jersey 2007 (Full report)

New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services (DHHS) and the Office of Minority and Multicultural Health (OMMH) presents a plan outlining health disparities in the State and how to reduce them during the next three years. The Plan to Eliminate Health Disparities in New Jersey addresses asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, HIV/AIDS and infant mortality. These and other health disparities result from a complex set of factors including education, language barriers, disparities in income, education and health care access.

Renal Dialysis Services

Free-standing renal dialysis facilities in New Jersey would be required to provide a percentage of their treatment to the uninsured under legislation approved by a Senate panel in November 2006. Read S1250/A2925 – Renal Dialysis Legislation:This bill requires ambulatory care facilities to provide a specified 3 amount of renal dialysis services without charge to certain 4 uninsured low-income persons.

November 13, 2006 - DHSS urges Legislature to make Life-Saving Dialysis More Available to Uninsured & Medically Underserved