Binational Health Week Offers Services & Resources for Latinos

SAN JOSE, Calif. – In order to provide needed services, resources and awareness of different health issues to Latin American immigrants and the Latino community, the County of Santa Clara and the Consulate of Mexico in San Jose have partnered with hundreds of community organizations to launch the Binational Health Week (BHW) from October 2 to 20 for the sixth consecutive year.

Even though many Latinos say that their health is good in general, they are the group with the lowest rate of health care coverage in California and have certain social and health issues unique to the Hispanic community compared with other ethnic groups, according to the California Health Survey, 2007 (CHIS).

“Lowest rate of medical coverage is mainly for adults”, said Molly Carbajal, spokesperson for the County of Santa Clara. “For children, coverage in the county, we have the Healthy Families and Child Health and Disability Prevention Program (CHDP).”

Although the Latino community consists of 13% of the total U.S. population (U.S Census Bureau, 2000), according to a Behavioral Risk Factor Survey (BRFS, 2009) only 6 of 10 Latino adults (60%) under 65 years of age have access to medical health coverage compared to Whites (90%), African-Americans (68%), and Asians (86%). During the Binational Health Week last year, only 31% of Latinos reported having some kind of medical coverage.

Binational Health Week activities are held in the United States, México, Canada, and several countries in Central America and South America. This year the initiative is implementing five national campaigns: 1) oral health, 2) obesity and diabetes, 3) disability and autism, 4) prevention of addictions and gangs among adolescents, and 5) health care access. In regards to oral health, Carbajal explained that the Latino community lacks access to dental care, waits longer to go and visit a dentist, and tends to do less preventive care.

Obesity and diabetes are grouped together because “they go hand in hand,” affirmed the County spokesperson. She recalled that during the opening ceremony, health authorities revealed that one in two or one in three of the Latino children born today “will be at risk of developing diabetes.”

Carbajal also explained that disability and autism campaign “is to raise awareness. We want to share the resources that we have for autism and disability, because we have many programs in the county, but people need to be aware of them.”

Addiction and gangs among Latino adolescents are old problems that the county has been fighting for a long time, but there are other traps that the youth are falling into today. Carbajal said that in the last year “24% of Latino adolescents have reported smoking a cigarette in their life.” She added, “Latino youth are falling into the trap of tobacco. We have tobacco prevention and education programs in the county” that could help them cope with the problem.

Finally, access to health care is one of the biggest problems in the community. That is one of the reasons why the Binational Health Week is holding more than 20 different activities which include free health fairs, screenings, flu shots, and workshops, among other events. Some of the health fairs will offer tests and screenings of cholesterol, glucose, and vaccinations at a very low price.

For this coming flu season, Carbajal highlighted that the state has a health program where many community clinics from Palo Alto to Gilroy provide vaccination for children at a very low cost. In San Jose some of the vaccinations will be offered at some sites of Planned Parenthood and Gardner Family Health Network.

“As the health care provider of last resort, the county bears huge costs in caring for seizures illness that should have been treated earlier,” said County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors President Ken Yeager. “Binational Health Week is an investment in prevention that will keep those costs down.”

For more information call 1-800-689-6669 or visit The Sixth Annual Binational Health Week in Santa Clara County page on www.sccgov.org (English)/(Spanish).

Download the Binational Health Week calendar of events in PDF format here.