Contact: Mary Anderson, 240-777-6534

For Immediate Release: Friday, July 19, 2002

County Workshop Develops
Action Plan for Latino Health

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan today joined with the Latino Health Initiative Steering Committee to convene experts and other County stakeholders at a workshop to develop an action plan for implementing recommendations from the “Blueprint for Latino Health in Montgomery County, Maryland 2002-2006”, released earlier this year.

“Taking action on the developmental work done by the Latino Health Initiative Steering Committee in the ‘Blueprint’ report is the next step towards implementing the plan,” said County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, “and we are looking for input and participation from a variety of sources to ensure we improve Latino health in Montgomery County.”

Participants worked in groups devoted to the priority areas of the plan: data collection; access to care; cultural and linguistic competency; organizational capacity of Latino community based organizations; engendering community participation; health promotion and disease prevention; and increasing the numbers of Latino health care professionals.

Results of today’s workshop will be shared with a wide range of community groups and leaders throughout the County to solicit ideas on what specific roles they can play to ensure actions are indeed taken.

For more information about the Latino Health Initiative, please call Sonia Mora at 240-777-1779.