Posters
Presentation Type
Poster
Discipline Track
Community/Public Health
Abstract Type
Research/Clinical
Abstract
Background: Colonias are underserved areas along the Texas-Mexico border, with high incidences of neurocognitive disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our goal is to build capacity to reduce risk, facilitate treatment for affected individuals, and provide caregiver support. Our aim was to construct an approach that was reflective and would reveal the rich and diverse ways in which people make meaning of their experiences and interactions with scientists, faculty, staff and students.
Methods: We examined our work with local community health workers. (CHWs), promotores in Spanish, to establish contact with, engage, mobilize, and educate the Hispanic communities of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV). Qualitative research methods were the principal way to approach this aim, including critical reflection.
Results: We now have 347 certified promotores in LRGV: 174 in Cameron County, 169 in Hidalgo County, 3 in Starr County, and 1 in Willacy County. Most of the promotores in LRGV are female, Spanish-speakers (98%) although half of them are also fluent in English and more than half of the promotores have five years or more as a state-certified CHW. Assumptions about knowledge, power and reflexivity surfaced in the interactions with members of the academic world interacting with Colonia’s residents.
Conclusions: Aspects of critical reflection, including deconstructing assumptions about knowledge, power and reflexivity, are useful to guide actions that facilitate capacity building in the Colonias, as well as action research methodology. The LRGV population’s characteristics make early detection of AD and dementia and support for patients and caregivers’ high priorities and clearly understanding the role of promotores as mediators is important.
Academic/Professional Position
Faculty
Mentor/PI Department
Neuroscience
Recommended Citation
Garza, Noe; Alliey-Rodriguez, Ney; Pirela, Rosa V.; and Maestre, Gladys E., "Critical reflection in practice: Generating Knowledge from the Interactions with Promotores for Engagement in Neurocognitive Disorders" (2023). Research Symposium. 76.
https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/somrs/2022/posters/76
Critical reflection in practice: Generating Knowledge from the Interactions with Promotores for Engagement in Neurocognitive Disorders
Background: Colonias are underserved areas along the Texas-Mexico border, with high incidences of neurocognitive disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our goal is to build capacity to reduce risk, facilitate treatment for affected individuals, and provide caregiver support. Our aim was to construct an approach that was reflective and would reveal the rich and diverse ways in which people make meaning of their experiences and interactions with scientists, faculty, staff and students.
Methods: We examined our work with local community health workers. (CHWs), promotores in Spanish, to establish contact with, engage, mobilize, and educate the Hispanic communities of the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV). Qualitative research methods were the principal way to approach this aim, including critical reflection.
Results: We now have 347 certified promotores in LRGV: 174 in Cameron County, 169 in Hidalgo County, 3 in Starr County, and 1 in Willacy County. Most of the promotores in LRGV are female, Spanish-speakers (98%) although half of them are also fluent in English and more than half of the promotores have five years or more as a state-certified CHW. Assumptions about knowledge, power and reflexivity surfaced in the interactions with members of the academic world interacting with Colonia’s residents.
Conclusions: Aspects of critical reflection, including deconstructing assumptions about knowledge, power and reflexivity, are useful to guide actions that facilitate capacity building in the Colonias, as well as action research methodology. The LRGV population’s characteristics make early detection of AD and dementia and support for patients and caregivers’ high priorities and clearly understanding the role of promotores as mediators is important.