About Concilio Latino de Salud

Concilio Latino de Salud
Latino Council Of Health

A Part of the Hispanic Community of Maricopa County since 1989 . . .

For nearly fifteen years, Concilio Latino de Salud (Concilio) has served the Hispanic/Latino communities of Maricopa County (Phoenix, AZ) by promoting health education and disease prevention. One of the goals of the agency is to reduce the ethnic and racial disparities of health outcomes for Phoenix's emerging Hispanic/Latino population. As of the 2000 United States Census, the greater metropolitan and rural sections of Phoenix are comprised of 26% Hispanics/Latinos, making them the second largest ethnicity in central Arizona.

Concilio is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit, community-based organization that provides culturally competent, linguistically appropriate prevention education about a wide range of health topics of great concern to the Hispanic community including: HIV/AIDS and other STIs (sexually transmitted infections), cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity, inhalant/substance abuse among young adults, preventative vaccinations for babies and children, tobacco use elimination and others. We actively pursue goals set by the national and state projects such as Healthy People 2010 through programming, advocacy, public policy analysis, workshops, community-wide education, service and resource referrals, applied research, and media links.

Concilio bases its foundation on the belief that the wisdom of the community will prevail with regard to health issues. Concilio lives, works and heals within the communities it serves. We have met the needs of the underserved communities through leadership in and partnership with those communities. Concilio has pioneered neighborhood coalitions, mobilizing a people-centered network of health liaisons, youth and adult peer leaders and promotores (lay health workers who outreach within the communities they live, work and play).

As dedicated health professionals in a community of diverse cultures, we strive to create an awareness of bienestar - well-being as a holistic synthesis of mind, body and spirit - and to establish this awareness as a way of life. To this end, Concilio strives to affect behavioral change and life style modification, while maintaining a culturally appropriate dialogue based on accepted community principles which include: Confianza (belief and faith in the exchange of prevention services); Personalismo (empathy with those we serve); Respeto (respect based on understanding of individual needs) and Familismo (dedication and commitment to the family). The programs we employ include these community principles as well as culturally appropriate learning tools, materials and curriculums. Health awareness requires a continual reaffirmation of our mission: to improve the overall well-being within diverse communities, with focus on Hispanics/Latinos, through health promotion and disease prevention in partnership with communities and organizations.

Cultural competency is more than placing a sign on the wall indicating the Spanish is spoken here. It entails ensuring that the individuals we serve are receiving services in a manner which accounts for cultural and linguistic nuances and that are developed with these principles in mind. To that end, Concilio adheres to the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in health care. Concilio achieves this goal by identifying existing culturally-based models of behavioral and/or primary health care services, applying the self-assessment Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to obtain profiles of the agency's various staffing and volunteer components and also applying the self-assessment Learning Style Inventory (LSI) to obtain group profiles. Based on the information and data collected through these instruments, Concilio can design and implement a wide-range of curriculum, activities, workshops and trainings that not only encapsulate cultural competency principles, but also advance participants awareness and cultural competency skills. Based on all of these mechanisms, Concilio delivers services that are cultural competent and linguistically appropriate for all of the communities it serves.

Concilio remains dedicated to making the Hispanic/Latino communities healthy, vibrant and whole . . .

Our program design includes many of the following elements:

Chronic Disease Prevention: in order to inspire creative learning in such topics as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity and vaccinations for all family members, Concilio has crafted and honed entertaining and non-threatening tools such as:

• Rotafolios: Flip charts with pictorial health messages on one side and explanatory materials on the other;
• Mesa Clinicas: Three-dimensional story boards using felt figurines to dramatize health messages;
• Radio Novelas: Health-edged dramas and stories from the Hispanic/Latino life experience;
• Youth Theater Performances: Productions for and by youth to convey compelling messages about health outcomes for individuals who did not receive appropriate or heed prevention messages. Puppet shows for elementary school-aged children using caricatures to depict prevention messages are also a part of the programs we offer.

HIV and STI Prevention: partnering with national, state and local agencies and authorities, Concilio provides a continuum of prevention services.

• Targeted Outreach: Identification of individuals who are at high risk for HIV and STD infections at a variety of venues and direct community outreach and recruitment entailing specific visits to high risk locations along with a county mobile testing unit to provide on-the-spot, immediate STD testing results to at very high risk individuals.
• Platicas: Small group gatherings to informally discuss serious topics, to share experiences, learn from each other and participate in non-threatening ways where community principles find a way to set the tone and discuss fears of stigmatization;
• Testing and Counseling Referrals Services: Inclusion of a local network of county-operated testing facilities that provide immediate counseling services to individuals with positive results and immediate referrals to service providers specializing in social and medical support;
• Continuing Education Gatherings: Monthly events which combine educational activities and social outlets for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS to learn latest treatment information, therapies and information about specialty topics;

Substance Use/Abuse: to significantly reduce the most preventable cause of disease and death, especially among our youth, we partner with schools, clinics, churches, and other non-traditional community prevention partners to provide specifically targeted populations behavioral and lifestyle modification messages.

• Middle-school aged and Parenting Classes: Implementing programs that simultaneously target both middle-school aged children and their parents, Concilio helps to increase awareness about substance abuse/use specifically inhalants and other classes of legal "drugs" while decreasing behaviors that lead to their usage. These programs involve a family-centered approach which adheres to the cultural principles outlined above;
• Employing "Best Practices" Curriculums, the use of nationally accepted instruments and measuring increases in awareness and modifications to behaviors: Identifying, adopting and tailoring of the most effective, research-based, best practice models, curriculums and instruments to effectively target groups of youth, young adults and adults. The goal is to make the participant rich in protective factors by increasing their awareness and knowledge and poor in risk factors which increase their propensity to use/abuse drugs and alcohol. The programs generally reach marginalized youth and young adults who, because of their status, are not normally reached through school-based and operated programs.

Top of Page....^