La Clinica Del Carino dba. One Community Health
- Grant Period: 2006-2009 FORHP Outreach grantee
- Program Representative Interviewed: Margery Dogotch, Principal Investigator
- Intervention Setting: Clinical/community
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Program Overview: La Clínica del Cariño
dba. One Community Health is a nonprofit community and migrant health
center, serving the Columbia River Gorge area, including residents of Hood River and Wasco Counties in
Oregon, and Klickitat and Skamania Counties in Washington.
La Clinica del Carino set out to identify an intervention appropriate for low-literacy and Hispanic populations in the community. Health center staff had difficulty locating a curriculum to meet the needs of an often poorly educated population. Previous experiences with formal, classroom-based health literacy education had not been positive, and they had begun piloting programs grounded in popular education methodology. They found the participatory aspect of these programs appealed to their target population, so they decided to develop their own curriculum based on this approach.
Content for the curriculum was borrowed from various sources. A physician on the health center staff had developed materials for low literacy audiences, which they used. They also used a program implemented by a local Area Agency on Aging as a model, adopting many participatory features.
The curriculum made minimal use of lectures, emphasizing action planning, activities such as games and skits, and personal accountability. Staff sought to ensure the accuracy and currency of information in the curriculum while also making cultural relevance a key focus.
Promotoras have led the sessions for program participants. Staff report the program has been in high demand. In addition, many participants bring a family member for support. As a result, they reached multiple generations of some families. Clinic staff have used an database to track biomarker data for participants over the course of the program (e.g., A1C levels, blood glucose, weight) and have found these indicators generally showed some benefit.
Resources required for implementing program
- Implementation staff (Promotoras)
- Space to implement program
- For evaluation, tools to collect and analyze biomarkers