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Looking for a familiar face in a white lab coat

Editorial Staying cool when when things heat up

Welcome to June, when summer becomes entrenched and most of us spend time pursuing cool things to drink, eat and wear. In other words, we try to maintain a healthy body temperature.

This seasonal effort probably includes swimming and that’s a good thing. At Latino Perspectives we occasionally shine the light on health, fitness and medicine, because we have seen the statistics. If you have not read about them, please, continue:

Demographers have already clued us into the legions of Baby Boomers who will need expanded health care services. Now think about the professionals needed to staff those services: everything from community-based services and pharmacies, to assisted living facilities and hospitals. Throw in doctors, nurses, therapists, and emergency medical personnel and, well, one category seems linked to another, leaving one to imagine a burgeoning field struggling to meet the needs of millions of seniors.

Latinos age 65 and older are expected to surpass senior African Americans by 1 million in 2030. U.S. Census figures project the number of elderly Hispanics will climb to 13.8 million by the year 2050.

Next I invite you to imagine being a Latino senior in need of any of these services. Recently my own mother was placed in a nursing home as she recovered from a knee replacement. Most of the people on the staff were non-Hispanic. She felt lonely, neglected, imprisoned in a place devoid of her cultural homey-ness – and boy, did I hear about it. Was there a solution? In the short-term, yes (morning cups of home-brewed café con leche and breakfast burritos helped my mother); in the long-term, Hispanics must carve careers in the medical field if we want the comfort of our own culture in the examining rooms and surgical centers of the nation.

There’s also something else. Health professionals have marveled at Hispanics’ longevity, with many of us living into our 90s and beyond. But the flip side is that many Latinos will not enjoy a relatively healthy old age.

“Despite living longer, Hispanics tend to have higher disability rates, more functional impairments, and higher rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes,” states a 2005 report presented by the National Alliance of Hispanic Health at the Second Conference on Aging in America. (Research shows senior Hispanics suffer double the rate of diabetes as non-Hispanic White seniors.)

Add to that the inability of many elderly Hispanics (most of them women) to afford good health insurance, which can limit the options of treatment. It boils down to this: more years of life, not healthier years of life.

The report went on to state that evidence “points to a lack of cultural proficiency in the health system as a key access barrier to services that would help Hispanic communities manage the impact of chronic diseases.”

It also cited “the bicultural and multicultural lives led by Hispanics and how that outlook must be incorporated into aging services in order for them to meet the challenges of the next aging boom.” For Latinos, family, community, culture and faith are integral to a healthy lifestyle.

We will need many more doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to handle the tsunami of aging Latinos in America.

“Just as Hispanics have come to define much of popular youth culture, the longevity of Hispanics means that aging in America will be redefined by Hispanic culture and values,” the report concludes.

In this month’s pages, you can read about Hispanic doctors who are on the front lines of medical care in Arizona. Perhaps their stories will inspire you to join the medical profession, or encourage a young Hispanic to do so. Then, when you are older and need professional medical services, there will be a familiar face ready to help.

June is also the month to salute our fathers. LPM profiles four great dads: a firefighter, sportswriter, Realtor and UPS driver, all with special relationships with their children.

These lazy days also call for summer reading. Angela Rabago-Mussi has handpicked a crop for your enjoyment in the Vibe section.

So here’s to the start of a great summer season, one that will likely last until….November.