The Latino Behavioral Health Institute offers Technical Assistance to Government and CBO’s in reaching the Latino Community with the expressed interest of decreasing disparity of services to this under-served population. TA and training is provided by bilingual and bicultural experts in reaching the Latino community. Various strategies are implemented by LBHI. Selections of strategies are jointly determined by agencies contracting with LBHI and are determined by local circumstances. Current projects include the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health for implementing community fairs. These community information dissemination fairs are primarily in Spanish and entail organizing numerous agencies in a given geographic area to share information and to develop linkages with the mental health system. A second project is the Ventura Latino Access project designed to develop strategies for system transformation to more effectively reach the Latino community.
LBHI VENTURA COUNTY LATINO ACCESS PROJECT (LAP)
Latino Behavioral Health Institute is assisting the VCBHD in carrying out its Latino Access Project
(LAP) by providing technical assistance and consultation. LBHI is responsible for:
- Identification of disparities and barriers to access experienced by the Latino population;
- Identification of community assets and resiliency factors used by the Latino to promote astate of “bienestar”;
- Identification of strategies leading to increased resources in programs and service deliverymethods and models;
- Recommendations that will serve as a blueprint for Ventura County Behavioral Health toaffect culturally and linguistic competent services I the areas of prevention, earlyintervention, treatment, wellness and recovery.
The LAP is projected to take place over the course of 3 – 5 years. The initial year of consultation entails gathering quantitative and qualitative information. Additionally, recommendations/strategies will be generated for improving mental health services to the Latino community in Ventura County. These recommendations will include measurable indices to track progress over specified periods of time. Year one will also include the beginning of recommendation implementation. The second and subsequent years will be dedicated to monitoring progress of recommendations.
Specifically, LBHI will employee a three phase approach in defining barriers to service and formulating recommendations to improve services to Latino population of Ventura County. The three-stage approach is modeled after Wilkins & Altschuld, found in “Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments”. Two stages include:
- ExplorationPrevious meetings with Ventura County staff have defined the desired deliverableas “recommendations for improving services to the Ventura County Latinoresidents”.
- Data GatheringIn order to define the gap in services to Latinos we must establish “what is” and“what should be” by analyzing County service information by age group and servicelocation, demographic data already in existence.
- Plan of ActionAnalysis will generate a plan of action delineating:Plan of Action Timetable Person Responsible(Quantified Objectives) (Monthly Reports) (Manager)
The Process of this project is diagramed as:
LBHI’s Technical Assistance and Consultation Proposal
for Ventura County Department of Behavioral Health (VCDBH)
LATINO ACCESS STUDY
March 31, 2009
