"Nos apoyamos mutuamente": Strategies to supporting community health workers addressing the emergency and chronic needs of Latinx families.

Community health workers (CHWs) have established pathways to implementing effective, sustainable, and cost-effective health programs among underserved populations. Despite the significant role of CHWs, there is limited literature describing the needs of CHWs, specifically in times of health emergencies and crises. Thus, we explored the challenges and sources of support among CHWs providing services to Latinx families. Participants were recruited from a Latinx community-based organization in metro Atlanta, working to strengthen family relationships using evidence-based programming. Fifteen semistructured interviews were conducted among CHWs. Interviews were conducted primarily in Spanish, recorded, transcribed, and translated into English for analysis. Following a thematic analysis, data were double-coded, and codes were described and compared for themes. Participants identified as Latinx (n = 15), were between the ages of 29 and 69 years, and had worked as CHWs between 1 month to 4 years. Two themes and seven subthemes were identified in the data. Theme 1 highlighted barriers and strategies employed by CHWs to address clients' preexisting and emerging needs, and Theme 2 focused on responding to client needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, which introduced new challenges and barriers that provoked adaptive organizational strategies to promote worker resilience. Addressing the needs of vulnerable communities in times of crisis to improve the working conditions for CHWs will require a multifaceted approach that prioritizes the removal of structural barriers. Barriers can be mitigated by prioritizing cultural assets, adopting flexible and equitable work policies, and enacting policies at the federal level that promote health justice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Migration-related trauma and PTSD among Latinx parents in the southeast during COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE: Latinx immigrants are at risk for migration-related trauma that can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Among parents in immigrant families with undocumented family member(s) (i.e., mixed-status), risk for PTSD may be exacerbated by policies that threaten family separation and exclude immigrants from systems of support. Understanding these relationships in context is important to equip practitioners to address traumatic stress in this population. METHOD: Our community-based participatory research (CBPR), mixed-methods study explored migration-related trauma and PTSD among Latinx immigrant parents in a restrictive immigration climate during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted 145 surveys with Latinx parents in mixed-status families and conducted multivariable linear analyses to test if immigration policy vulnerability strengthened the relationship between migration-related trauma and PTSD symptoms. Then, we conducted 15 interviews with frontline workers serving Latinx immigrant families to contextualize the relationships between migration-related trauma, immigration-related policies, and PTSD during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Parent surveys revealed was no observed relationship between premigration-related trauma and PTSD symptoms (ß = 0.12, p = .15). However, increases in policy vulnerability was associated with PTSD symptoms (ß = 0.25, p < .01) and strengthened the relationship between postmigration trauma and PTSD symptoms (ß = 0.19, p = .03). Frontline workers described how social isolation due to immigration-related policies worsened under the COVID-19 pandemic and deportation fears remained a constant stressor. CONCLUSIONS: Results from our CBPR study highlight the need for policies and practices that address compounding effects of migration-related trauma, policy vulnerability, and the COVID-19 pandemic to promote mental health equity among Latinx immigrant families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Future of Public Health Must be Radical: Incorporating Racial Capitalism.

Racism impedes the health of communities of color and, more recently, has been declared a public health crisis. Social uprisings in response to the police brutalities in the summer of 2020 have further pushed public health as a discipline to recognize racism as a public health issue. We argue that, as a discipline, we must challenge ourselves to move toward radical public health to achieve health equity. Radical public health requires future and current public health practitioners to discuss the root of health inequities, which we identify as racial capitalism. We (a) discuss racial capitalism and its intersection with public health and (b) critique current anti-racist pedagogy with recommendations on how to move forward. Future public health practitioners must acquaint themselves with racial capitalism and use it as a lens to see all public health problems if they are to dismantle structural racism that perpetuates health inequities.