Grantee Research Project Results

Casa de Salud: A Model For Engaging Community

EPA Grant Number: R828596
Title: Casa de Salud: A Model For Engaging Community
Investigators: Berthold-Frishman, Kay , Latowsky, Gretchen , Dee, Serena
Current Investigators: Berthold-Frishman, Kay
Institution: Family Service Inc.
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: November 1, 2000 through October 31, 2004 (Extended to October 31, 2005)
Project Amount: $792,383
RFA: Environmental Justice: Partnerships for Communication (1999) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Justice , Human Health

Description:

To demonstrate that meetings in private homes between residents, health care providers, and researchers are an effective means to bridge the gap that issues of poverty, culture, and race impose on effective public health interventions.

Approach:

Casa de Salud (Health House) is a community research and education effort designed to engage the residents of a majority Latino community in Lawrence, Massachusetts in raising awareness and mitigating health impacts of exposure to environmental toxins. Primary objectives of the project are to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of neighborhood home-based meetings (charlas) as a means to:

conduct mutual education and planning among community members, health care providers, and researchers;
develop and implement effective, neighborhood-based education tools to help families address known health concerns (especially lead exposure and respiratory illness) through collaboration between community residents, health care providers, and environmental health scientists;
gather data regarding residents' health concerns and knowledge of environmental health threats to inform the activities of environmental scientists and health care providers;
increase scientific knowledge and community understanding of specific environmental health threats and change strategies; and
develop culturally appropriate community-based interventions building on increased scientific and medical knowledge and community awareness.

Expected Results:

Community residents, health care providers, and environmental scientists will work together to become better informed about exposures to environmental toxins that affect public health and to develop culturally appropriate medical and non-medical interventions to mitigate the effects of exposures.

Publications and Presentations:

Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 3 publications for this project

Journal Articles:

Journal Articles have been submitted on this project: View all 1 journal articles for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

Minority communities, environmental justice, urban environment, public health interventions, communication model, partnerships,, RFA, Scientific Discipline, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Health Risk Assessment, environmental justice, Social Science, education, intervention strategies, lead, environmental toxicants, Hispanic, casa de salud, community outreach, hazardous environmental exposures, public health intervention, neighborhood home-based meetings (charlas), latino community, community based intervention, partnerships

Progress and Final Reports:

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.