Reaching Latinas with Our Bodies, Ourselves and the Guía de Capacitación para Promotoras de Salud: Health Education for Social Change

As the cultural and linguistic diversity of the United States continues to grow and population shifts transform the communities where we live and work, health care providers continue to face challenges to deliver health services in demographically redefined terrains. This report describes the development of a Spanish-language training guide for community health workers (Guía de Capacitación para Promotoras de Salud) based on the book Nuestros Cuerpos, Nuestras Vidas (NCNV), the Spanish-language translation and cultural adaptation of the classic women's health book Our Bodies, Ourselves. The guide aims to 1) provide a tool for addressing the health education needs of immigrant Latinas and 2) facilitate the use of the book NCNV as a health education tool in Latino communities. Thirty telephone interviews with individuals working in agencies and organizations serving Latinos and 2 focus groups with Latinas were conducted to select the topics included in the training guide, all of which were drawn directly from NCNV. The guide contains 11 modules organized into 6 workshops. The modules address 11 topics related to women's health, ranging from sexuality and pregnancy to domestic violence and mental health. An ecological framework is used to deliver the health information. The materials acknowledge the roles of history, environment, culture, economic conditions, migration history, and politics as key determinants of health and illness. The workshops are designed to train community health workers on the women's health topics contained in the guide and to equip them for the delivery of health education among immigrant Latinas.