Peers for Progress Newsletter Archive - October 31 2012 Newsletter Copy

Peers for Progress e-News

October 31, 2012

Celebrating the Achievements of Promotores for Hispanic Heritage Month
From September 15th to October 15th, people across the United States celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month by honoring the contributions that Latinos have made to America and drawing attention to the challenges they currently face. In many Latino communities, promotores are working to promote health and provide support to community members. Peers for Progress recognizes the important contributions that promotores are making to Latino community health. PfP is working with the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Hispanic advocacy organization in the United States, to support and advance the work of promotores across the country. In this issue of the newsletter, we share some recent scientific literature on promotores as well as two resources for promotores and community health workers. Our featured story explores the recently revised National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support.

Featured Story

UNC National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Emphasize the Importance of Ongoing Support

The National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support are designed to define quality DSME and assist healthcare providers in providing the best education and support to people with diabetes. The Standards are reviewed and revised every five years. In this new edition, ongoing support has been codified and emphasized as a key component of diabetes self-management. Donna Tomky, a member of the National Standards Task Force, agreed to be interviewed about the revised Standards. Edwin Fisher, Global of Director of Peers for Progress, also served on the Task Force. [ Read more]

Program Resources

SONRISA: A Curriculum Toolbox for Promotores to Address Mental Health and Diabetes
SONRISA is a Spanish/English mental health curriculum toolbox developed for promotores who work with Hispanic clients to prevent or manage diabetes. It was developed in response to two commonly expressed needs for promotores working with clients on diabetes: 1) to address the prevention and management of depression together with the prevention and management of diabetes, and 2) to prevent emotional burnout from helping clients cope with diabetes and other daily issues. SONRISA offers promotores a resource to learn about depression and other mental/emotional health issues associated with diabetes, to identify the severity of depression, to work with clients in cases of minimal to mild depression, and to know whom to refer to in cases of moderate to severe depression.[ Read more]

Community Health Worker Toolkit Developed by the Rural Assistance Center
This toolkit is designed to help evaluate opportunities for developing a CHW program and provide resources and best practices developing by successful CHW programs. The toolkit contains 8 modules: 1) Introduction to Community Health Workers, 2) Program Models, 3) Training Approaches, 4) Program Implementation, 5) Planning for Sustainability, 6) Measure Program Impacts, 7) Disseminating Best Practices, and 8) Program Clearinghouse.[ Read more]

Research Briefs

Promotoras in Mental Health: A Review of English, Spanish, and Portuguese Literature
This article reviews the literature in 3 different cultures/languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) and aims to describe promotoras' roles, training, and interventions and their outcomes related to mental health activities. Results demonstrate that in different cultures/languages, promotoras empower community members to promote mental health and prevent exacerbation of individuals' mental illness. Promotoras, when trained carefully, have the ability to increase awareness and to promote mental health in populations that would otherwise have limited or no access to care.[ Full abstract]

Preparing Promotoras to Deliver Health Programs for Hispanic Communities: Training Processes and Curricula
This purpose of this study was to examine promotora-curriculum and training processes used to prepare promotoras to deliver health programs. The authors examined transcripts of 12 in-depth interviews with program planners and conducted a content analysis of seven different training materials used in their respective promotora programs. The content analysis revealed a variety of strategies used to make the training materials interactive and culturally competent. Study implications describe the importance of planners' provision of ongoing, goal-directed, and supervised training using both appropriate language and interactive methods to engage and teach promotoras. [ Full Abstract]

"One Can Learn From Other People's Experiences": Latino Adults' Preferences for Peer-Based Diabetes Interventions

The authors partnered with 2 predominantly Mexican American churches in Chicago and conducted 6 focus groups with 37 adults who had diabetes or had a family member with diabetes. They assessed participant preferences regarding group education and telephone-based one-to-one peer diabetes self-management interventions. The authors found that Church-based Latinos with diabetes and their family members were interested in peer-based diabetes self-management interventions; however, they preferred group-based to telephone-based one-to-one peer programs. [ Full Abstract]

Funding Opportunities

Behavioral Interventions to Address Multiple Chronic Health Conditions in Primary Care

DEADLINE: February 5, 2013
The funding opportunity announcement (FOA) seeks Research Project Grant (R01) applications that propose to use a common conceptual model to develop behavioral interventions to modify health behaviors and improve health outcomes in patients with comorbid chronic diseases and health conditions. Specifically, this FOA will support research in primary care that uses a multi-disease care management approach to behavioral interventions with high potential impact to improve patient-level health outcomes for individuals with three or more chronic health conditions. The proposed approach must modify behaviors using a common approach rather than administering a distinct intervention for each targeted behavior and/or condition. Diseases and health conditions can include, but are not limited to: mental health disorders (e.g., depression), diabetes, smoking, obesity, chronic pain, alcohol and substance abuse and dependence, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, cancer and hypertension. [ More Info]

More opportunities can be found on the Peers for Progress website - Funding Opportunities page.

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