Student Group Addresses Hispanic, Latino Health Care
Needs

Shanti Shenoy, Elizabeth Kim, Luis
Ticona, Sudip Saha and Kathy Fox are among the Programa
Salud committee members who planned Saturday's
conference.
PHOTO BY HPS/WILL KIRK
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By Amy Cowles Homewood
The third annual
Programa Salud student leadership conference is set for
Saturday, April 10, when close to 200 area college students
and health care providers are expected to convene in the
Mattin Center on the Homewood campus. Under this year's
theme, "Working Within the System: Health Politics in
Maryland and Beyond," the general session and workshops
will address legal issues impacting the health of the
nation's Hispanic and Latino communities.
"To really make a difference in the quality and access
of care for the Hispanic community, it is important to
change the system by creating laws that ensure linguistic
access for limited English-proficient patients, as well as
incorporate cultural competency into health care delivery,"
said Elizabeth Kim, a junior majoring in neuroscience who
is Programa Salud's coordinator for this academic year.
The idea behind the conference is to teach students
preparing for careers in medicine, public health and law
about the needs and rights of their future clients who
speak Spanish.
"We want to motivate other students to start similar
programs at their own schools," Kim said. "We can make a
bigger impact if there are more of us out there." It's a
mission that has driven Programa Salud since four
undergraduates created the health care initiative three
years ago. Kim noted that one of Programa Salud's creators,
Maria del Pilar Ortega, Krieger School class of 2002, is
implementing the same program at the University of Chicago
Pritzker School of Medicine, where she is now a student. In
2003, the American Medical Association gave Ortega and
Programa Salud its Leadership Award for the group's
commitment to alleviating the cultural and linguistic
barriers facing Spanish speakers when seeking medical care.
The conference runs from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on
Saturday in room 101 of the Mattin Center. The speakers
include Baltimore City health commissioner Peter Beilenson,
who will give welcoming remarks at 10 a.m. The keynote
speakers will be Olivia D. Carter-Pokras, associate
professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the
University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Mara
Youdelman, staff attorney at the National Health Law
Program.
Workshops will focus on health politics on the state
level, legal issues and the rights of immigrants. They will
be led by William Sciarillo, president and CEO of Baltimore
Health Care Access; Pamela Bohrer-Brown, project
coordinator for Hispanic Access Project; and Ricardo
Flores, president of the Maryland Latino Coalition for
Justice and staff attorney for the Public Justice Center.
The directors of Programa Salud also will talk to the
student attendees from George Washington University,
Georgetown University, Loyola College, Towson University,
University of Maryland School of Law and the Johns Hopkins
schools of Medicine and Public Health about how to start
and maintain their own student health initiatives.
The event also will help professionals in the public
health, law and medical fields become more aware of the
current and future health policies concerning Hispanic and
Latino health, organizers said.
In addition to the annual conference, Programa Salud
is involved in other outreach efforts including free
interpretation services for hospitals and clinics, cultural
competency workshops for medical students and community
clinics, an after-school program in East Baltimore
addressing Hispanic children's need for health education in
nutrition and lead poisoning, and HIV/AIDS educational
workshops for ESL students at a community center. Last
spring, Programa Salud helped sponsor a health fair with
the Baltimore City Health Department, Baltimore HealthCare
Access and AmeriGroup in the spring.
Programa Salud's conference partners are the Baltimore
City Health Department, Johns Hopkins Urban Health
Institute, Baltimore Health Care Access, Johns Hopkins
Alumni Association, Office of Multicultural Student
Affairs, Center for Social Concern, JHU Bookcenter, Student
Technology Services, Sign Man and the Office of the Dean
for Student Life. For information and to register for the
conference, go to
www.jhu.edu/salud or e-mail Elizabeth Kim at [email protected].
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