<i>La Comunidad Habla</i>: Using Internet Community-Based Information Interventions to Increase Empowerment and Access to Health Care of Low Income Latino/a Immigrants

Abstract

The innovative educational communication interventions described in this paper include the use of bi-lingual, low literacy level websites and training created by low income Latina women to increase access to health care, health information, and the internet. We focus on one grassroots intervention, aimed at increasing access to health care for under and uninsured Latino/a. We also outline a proposal for an academic-community intervention to increase mental health service utilization of young Latino/a children to indicate future possibilities of such collaborations. We describe the rationale, conceptual framework, theoretical underpinnings, design and implementation, evaluation and institutionalization of this strategy, as well as its challenges and lessons learned.