March Is Latino Health Month In Pennsylvania

“To improve the health of Pennsylvania’s Latinos, March has been declared Latino Health Month.

“The Latino community is a young one that, unfortunately, lags behind the general population in income, education, wealth and employment. Some of these socio-demographic indicators correlate to problems related to health care services,” said Norman Bristol-Colon, executive director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs, or GACLA.

It is estimated that nearly 25 percent of Latinos in Pennsylvania lack health insurance. In addition, numerous studies highlight health disparities
in minority populations, especially the Latino community.

“Pennsylvania has its share of problems with health disparities and addressing these disparities has to be a top priority,” Bristol-Colon said. “These problems will not go away by themselves if we don’t start to look at what can be done within the health care system.”

In 2005, GACLA and the Department of Health sponsored the first Latino Health Summit to address issues impacting the health of Latinos in Pennsylvania. Participants looked at a number of issues, including access to care/culturally competent care; awareness/prevention/education & outreach; data collection, advocacy and accountability; and capacity building/infrastructure.

Also, the summit provided a forum for stakeholders to develop policy-based recommendations on key issues impacting the health and health status of Latinos in Pennsylvania.

As a result of this summit, Pennsylvania will continue working on the following issues to ensure Latinos have equal access to health care:

— Monitoring progress on the recommendations made during the health summit; — Partnering with state agencies, the private sector, community-based organizations and the medical/health care community to address health issues that affect Latinos in Pennsylvania; and — Ensuring the private and public sector work together to drive policy and regulatory changes to achieve better health care among the Latino population.

A report summarizing the recommendations proposed at the end of the summit by representatives from each track will be available on GACLA’s Web site: www.gacla.state.pa.us/.

The Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs is the commonwealth’s governmental agency responsible for addressing issues impacting Pennsylvania’s Latino population before the executive and legislative branches of government. Since its inception in 1971, GACLA’s mission has been to ensure that the Latino community is afforded the opportunity to continue to prosper in Pennsylvania.

CONTACT: Norman Bristol-Colon

(717) 783-1116 “

Comments are closed.