Health Committee - GACHA

Chair: Milton Delgado

A growing body of research on health disparities between ethnic groups is making it increasingly clear that being a member of a minority group in the United States, in and of itself, can be a barrier to health care. And though socioeconomic status and ethnicity are only two elements in the larger picture of access to care, statistically they have shown themselves to be critically important. The inability to speak English, in particular, has been empirically associated with less care seeking and diminished access.

The mission of the Governor's Council on Hispanic Affairs Health Committee is focused on understanding healthcare barriers for Delaware Hispanics and to advise our governor on strategies to eliminate them. To accomplish this mission, the committee has developed two initiatives that address linguistic and informational barriers to healthcare. One strategy that the committee implemented immediately was to identify best practices and seek to collaborate with an organization that has an existing program that we may enhance by making it linguistically competent. The Delaware Help Line is a service that uses both a website and a toll free telephone number to provide information on state government agencies and referrals to community resources. The committee approached the Delaware Help line with a proposal to translate the website's content. Ms. Patricia Blevins, Executive Director, agreed to partner with GACHA to gather information on Spanish speaking service providers and provide a link on the website to its new Spanish language portal, which will be translated by GACHA and professional community volunteers. The new linguistically competent website will be completed in November with an official unveiling in January 2007. Additionally, Delaware Helpline has also hired two Spanish-speaking telephone operators to service Delaware's growing Hispanic population. This collaboration has seized a unique opportunity to solve a very important, but easily remedied problem.

The second initiative will address the information dissemination barrier. It involves the creation of the GACHA UNO Card. This card is a folding business card that lists the names and telephone numbers of the most commonly used health and social services that provide Spanish language assistance. It will also have the number to the Delaware Helpline, which can help them find services not listed on the card. This initiative was developed to serve Delaware Hispanics that may not have access to a computer. It will be distributed at local festivals, churches, doctor's offices, and other gathering places.