Local Resources | Books | Web Sites |  Periodicals and Newspapers

The Library is actively involved in promoting literacy to our multi-cultural customers.  This page was created to help foster health literacy to our immigrant and refugee population.  Please also see our guides on Black Women's Health Issues - and Women's Reproductive Health Issues which focus on diverse cultures.

Local Resources
Asian Family Services has a mission to counseling both in the clients native
language and in English to help them gain access to services ranging from welfare, to education to health.

Connecticut Advisory Commission on Multicultural Health is responsible for improving the health of all state residents by eliminating differences in disease, disability, and death rates among ethnic, racial and cultural populations.

Connecticut Health Foundation (CHF), established in July of 1999, is the state’s largest independent, non-profit grantmaking foundation dedicated to improving the health of the people of Connecticut through systemic change and program innovation.   Since it was established, CHF has funded nearly $17.8 million in grants. The organization recently published a report: Pathways to Equal health: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Connecticut. You may download the report in English or  Spanish.)

Hartford Health Disparities Collaborative HHDC's mission is to identify and support cooperative initiatives that address racial and ethnic health disparities among Hartford residents, and improve information sharing and awareness of the disparities issue among policy leaders, citizens, and the general public.

Hispanic Health Council - This Hartford based organization is committed to improving the health and social well-being of Puerto Rican/Latinos and other underserved communities through community-based research, direct service, training and advocacy.

Latinos/as Contra Sida, Inc is an organization in Hartford that is trying to improve the quality of life of those in the Latino community infected and affected with HIV/AIDS.

Books
                   Cultural diversity in health and illness / Rachel E. Spector
                   RA418.5.T73 S64 1991 
 

                   Hartford, su salud y el medio ambiente
                   RA566.H318 2002 Oversize 

The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures /Anne Fadiman. RA418.5.T73 F33 1998 

                     
  


Salud! : guia integral para la mujer latina -- cuerpo, mente y espiritu Jane L. Delgado  RA778.4.H57 D4518 1997 
          

    
Web sites
American Indian Health and Asian-American Health are Web sites developed by the National Library of Medicine.

Ethnomed is a Web site that provides cultural information for a diverse population including Somali, Amharic, Chinese, Ethiopian and other groups. This is a valuable resource for health care providers.  Also available is patient information in their native languages.

Eurasia Health Knowledge Network  has materials available in Albanian, Armenian, Belarus, and Czech. Many documents are available online. To search the database, click on multilingual library.  You may request other documents by email to: library@eurasiahealth.org. Make sure you refer to documents by title and ID numbers. You must say "urgent" if you want to receive something in a timely fashion.  You need Cyrillic fonts to read Russian. 

Factline is a website that tracks health in underserved communities.

Family Health International (FHI) is dedicated to improving lives, knowledge, and understanding worldwide. They pursue their mission through a highly diversified program of research, education, and services in family health and HIV/AIDS prevention and care.  FHI is among the largest and most established nonprofit international public health organizations, managing research and field activities in more than 70 countries to meet the public health needs of some of the world's most vulnerable people.

Health Communications Materials Database is the world’s largest database for multicultural medical information.  The publications can be searched by subject, material type, (pamphlet, poster, book, etc.) language, country or producer. Many of the publications can be downloaded in PDF format.
 

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) directs programs that improve the Nation's health by expanding access to comprehensive, quality health care for all Americans. Through its four Bureaus (key program areas), HRSA works to improve and extend life for people living with HIV/AIDS, provide primary health care to medically underserved people, serve women and children through state programs, and train a health workforce that is both diverse and motivated to work in underserved communities. The agency provides many consumer health publications through its Information Center.
http://www.hrsa.gov/

Multicultural Health Communication Service is a site that offers health information in multiple languages.  It would be helpful to health care providers to retrieve fact sheets for their patients. There is an index by language and by disease. Information is downloadable in PDF format.
 

New York Online Access to Health  (NOAH) provides access to high quality full-text consumer health information in English and Spanish that is accurate, timely, relevant and unbiased. (Revised 12/01)

Spanish Health Information Resource for English Speaking Librarians All librarians with a Latino population could benefit from this portal to hundreds of informative bi-lingual and Spanish sites.

NEW! U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants publishes a Web site with multicultural health resources in eight languages including Arabic, Somali, and Russian.  Their misson statement is "To address the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of migrants in community life."

Periodicals 

iCONN - the Connecticut digital library provides a Health and Wellness Database.
Using a Connecticut library card from your home or office will provide access to  over 9000 articles. By typing the keyword "multi-cultural" in the search box. You may read these online, print them or email them to yourself or a friend.