Stories of Success and Tools to Help You Get There
Building a Bridge to the Latino Community
Prevention staff from Alabama’s Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services reached out to the state’s Latino AIDS Coalition to better understand and serve Alabama's growing Hispanic/Latino population.
Between 2000 and 2012, Alabama saw its Hispanic population increase by 156.7 percent—making it the third fastest-growing Hispanic state in the U.S.1 As of 2013, Latinos comprised 4.1 percent of Alabama's total population,2 and their numbers are continuing to increase.
Alabama's emerging Latino population presented a challenge for state substance use prevention staff. "We wanted to improve our understanding of the Latino community's needs and identify barriers to their accessing our services," says Beverly Johnson, Acting Prevention Director and SPF SIG* coordinator at the Alabama Department of Mental Health, Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
To begin this process, Johnson and her colleague, SPF SIG Consultant Lauren Blanding, attended a Montgomery Health Department training on working with the Latino community. There, they met Jean Hernandez, Latino outreach coordinator for AIDS Alabama. Hernandez invited Johnson and Blanding to attend a meeting of AIDS Alabama's Latino AIDS Coalition.
"Jean wanted to help us better understand the cultural and linguistic issues that prevent Latinos from seeking substance abuse prevention and mental health services," Blanding says.
Hernandez was also interested in learning more about how the Alabama Department of Mental Health could support the Latino community. "I work directly with Latinos living with HIV, and many have significant substance abuse problems and mental health issues. Lack of health insurance, fears about attitudes toward immigration, cultural and linguistic barriers, problems finding transportation—all these things affect Latinos in need of health care and prevention services."
Blanding now attends regular Latino AIDS Coalition meetings and trainings, and Hernandez represents the Latino community on the State Prevention Advisory Board. Their collaborative exchange of data, information, and insights is helping both the state and the coalition think about ways to better serve Latinos with substance use and mental health needs.
This connection started when Lauren Blanding received a promotional flier for a training on working with Latino community members. Blanding saw an opportunity for the state to reach out and connect with the Latino community, and she took it. She and Johnson attended the training and struck up a conversation with Hernandez; the relationship grew from there.
"A couple of weeks later, I went to my first Latino AIDS Coalition meeting as a representative of the Department of Mental Health," Blanding says. "I hear Latinos express their needs and concerns, and I can share with them information about our network of providers. I've heard from dentists, church leaders, and other community members who provide valuable insights."
Both groups quickly identified common ground that made participation in each other's activities mutually beneficial. In this case, the common ground was the health of Latinos struggling with substance use and misuse.
The state wanted to better understand barriers to service delivery for Latinos, and the Latino AIDS Coalition needed more information on prevention services available for Latinos with HIV who were at risk for depression and substance use. "Often, the most helpful linkages are found outside the scope of our traditional job descriptions," says Johnson. "So it’s important to find those places where needs intersect and then connect with the people involved."
Blanding has literally gone the extra mile to keep this collaboration moving forward. Each month she drives 100 miles from her office in Montgomery to the coalition office in Birmingham to attend coalition meetings. She also attends trainings and workshops as often as her schedule allows.
In turn, Hernandez is committed to participating on the State Prevention Advisory Board and advocating for Alabama's Latino population. "It's important for us to have a voice at the table," she says. "Collaboration across our agencies is helping us talk honestly about health disparities in the Latino community."
Sometimes the conversation needs to go to uncomfortable places. This includes honest talk about attitudes toward Latinos and immigration in the South, some of which may "discourage Latinos (documented or undocumented) from seeking even general health care and treatment, regardless of eligibility."3
"This collaboration is helping us look at some identified barriers to Latinos accessing services, such as the fact that many Latinos are not accessing services because they’re concerned about immigration and citizenship issues," Johnson says. "That was a big AHA! moment for me. Now, we are working hand-in-hand with the Latino community to provide the necessary resources to one another—to continue to build."
This fledgling collaboration is gaining momentum. "Jean's relationship with Lauren and Beverly has been very eye-opening," says Alex Smith, director of policy and advocacy at AIDS Alabama. "It's vital for our agency to have these relationships with the state for us to be able to address health disparities in the Latino community, especially when it comes to substance abuse."
By connecting personally with state staff, Hernandez is now more familiar with services offered through the state's network of substance use prevention providers. "It's important for me to be in contact with different types of health services providers so I can translate what's available to the Hispanic community," she says. "I am learning how to navigate the system. These relationships have also opened up training opportunities for me and our volunteers."
Toward that end, Blanding has introduced SAMHSA’s prevention planning model—the Strategic Prevention Framework—to Latino AIDS Coalition leadership to support their prevention efforts and provide a shared language for moving forward. And to further help this collaboration grow, the state recently added AIDS Alabama's Prevention Program Coordinator Ebony Blake to the State Prevention Advisory Board.
“We wanted to be culturally aware and make sure we had staff who can identify and effectively communicate with Latinos seeking services," Johnson says. "Our collaboration with Jean and the Latino AIDS Coalition has helped us meet these goals."
*SPF SIG stands for Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grants—infrastructure grants provided to States and federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations to implement SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework.
1. Vega, M.Y., Klukas, E., Valera, E., and Montenegro, J. (2015). The State of Latinos in the Deep South: Being Visible by Piercing the Stigma Veil. New York, NY: Latino Commission on AIDS. Available at //www.latinoaids.org/publications/DeepSouthReport2015.pdf
2. U.S. Census Bureau, 2015. State & County QuickFacts, Alabama. Available at https://www.census.gov/quickfacts
3. AIDS United Southern Reach. (2013, September). Assessment of HIV/AIDS Needs and Pathways for Change of Latinos in the Southern United States. Final Report.