Latino/A/X Communities

Latino/a/x and Hispanic refer to people from a wide variety of countries, races, and backgrounds. Hispanic as a term refers to a shared language and linguistic history, Spanish, whereas Latino can be defined as any person of Latin-American descent residing in the United States. Latina is typically used to describe female-identifying persons of Latin-American descent, while Latinx is a LGBTQ friendly gender-neutral term. Cultural competence dictates asking clients how they identify before assigning any labels. The Latino/Hispanic population in the United States reached 57 million in 2015.

Resources:

National Center for Cultural Competence

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Description: This is an inexhaustible database of resources for practitioners, supervisors and organizers to learn about cultural competence and assess the areas of growth in their practice. Material is tailored towards medical and mental health practitioners.

Useful resources include:

Large Handbook on Providing Healthcare Services to Latinos by HSRA, Office of Minority Health & SAMHSA

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Description: This easy-to-read 123-page primer provides information to improve services to the 30 million Latinos in the U.S., both through organizational modifications and specific one-on-one engagement strategies.

Culture Cues and End-of-Life Discussions

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Description: “Culture Cues” is a compilation of 2-page PDFs for clinicians informing them how different cultures perceive illness, how medical decisions are made, their norms about touch and how they contend with terminal illness. There are culture cue and end-of-life suggestions specifically for working with Latinos/as/x.

Cultural Competency Manual from Virginia Department of Education

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Description: This 200-page manual encompasses all the major components of cultural competency. This is ideal material for gaining expertise in the field and developing your own training course on cultural competency as an organizer. The manual contains specific subsections on the nomenclature, demographics, social and educational issues, and values of Latino/a/x and Hispanic communities.

Child Welfare Information Gateway

Working with Hispanic Families

Description: The Child Welfare Information Gateway offers resources and publications to help strengthen families and protect children. The diverse populations and communities page offers information for working with Latino/a/x and Hispanic families for child welfare workers. These resources are offered both in Spanish and English.

BE SAFE: A Cultural Competency Model for Latino and Hispanic Communities

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Description: This guide tackles barriers to HIV/AIDS treatment for Latinos/as/x that can be more broadly applied to understanding healthcare access disparities. Specific sections include “Barriers to Care”, “Ethics”, “Sensitivity of the Provider”, “Assessment, Facts”, and “Encounters”. Ways in which an understanding of these topics can improve provider’s services to this minority group are discussed.

Healing Hands

Paso a Paso Cultural Competence with Latinos PDF

Description: This publication is intended to help healthcare workers provide culturally competent care for Latinos/as/x. Subsections include tips on balancing modern and traditional medicine as well as building rapport with Spanish-speaking clients.

National Alliance on Mental Illness

Latino Mental Health

Description: This page from NAMI includes text and video clips about mental health beliefs within the Latino/a/x community. The guide outlines these attitudes towards providers, barriers to treatment, and different expressions of mental illness to inform culturally competent mental and behavioral healthcare practice when working with this population.

Services:

Con Mi Madre

Con Mi Madre Home Page

Description: Con Mi Madre is committed to providing education and support to empower Latinas and their mothers. The program is committed to cultural competence with all curriculum and program materials offered in both English and Spanish. Their program focuses on educational preparedness broken down by grade levels.

Latino Healthcare Forum

Latino Healthcare Forum Home Page

Description: The Latino Healthcare Forum believes in the elimination of inequalities in health care access. They strive to increase the provision of quality, culturally competent health care for Latinos/as/x in Austin. Their programs include but are not limited to Promo Salud, a program that trains community health workers, and The Rundberg Health Initiative, which focuses on assessing and mobilizing community resources to address healthcare disparities in the Rundberg area.