title: The role of Latino/Hispanic communities in health services research: strategies for a meaningful partnership.
abstract: This paper critically assesses the important elements of the Latino/Hispanic community's participation in health services research and the known barriers to effective collaboration, and provides suggestions that may contribute toward a meaningful partnership among health care providers, researchers and the community. The discussion focuses on central strategies for community participation to help improve existing health care services' effectiveness, specifically for low-income Latino/Hispanic groups. It reviews current approaches for including communities in health care delivery and health services research and draws examples from the author's experiences of working with Latino/Hispanic communities for almost 20 years. The data implies that mutual benefits can be derived from forging alliances and meaningful partnerships between the health services research community and the Latino/Hispanic community.
authors.affiliation: Center for Child Welfare, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Zambrana
mesh_terms: D003144:Communication Barriers; D003256:Community Participation; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011203:Poverty; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000523:psychology; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014481:United States