The Indigena Health and Wellness Collaborative is a partnership between Instituto Familiar de La Raza and Asociacion Mayab that has the goal of improving the health and well-being of Indigena families in San Francisco.
The IHWC seeks to increase access to health and social services and to create and foster opportunities for emotional and spiritual healing and to promote wellness among Indigena families in San Francisco. Our program believes that language, culture and tradition are powerful generators of health and wellness that our communities have used and practiced for thousands of years and have passed on to generation after generation until now.
The program supports and organizes cultural events and ceremonial and spiritual activities that promote community building, strengthen social networks of support and provide opportunities for emotional and spiritual healing. These activities also create opportunities for early identification and intervention in families struggling to overcome trauma, depression, addictions, and other health and mental health problems.
Wellness Promotion Activities
IFR will utilize traditional and contemporary interventions to treat mental health problems and promote health and wellness. Spiritual ceremonies and cultural activities are venues to inform, educate, and engage Indigenas. The collaborative utilizes its wide network of relationships with traditional healers and community groups to integrate health promotion, health education, and risk reduction (HERR) messages into traditional celebrations, ceremonies and other cultural activities. IFR Program staff work closely with Asociacion Mayab and other organizations to develop culturally congruent outreach materials and design strategies that engage Indigena communities and encourage them to participate in the range of services provided within the collaborative. Community forums will be organized to stimulate dialog about individual, collective, and historical trauma among Indigena families.
Cultural Events/Group Activities
These include ceremonies and other cultural and traditional activities already existing in the community. Cultura y Salud supports these activities with material and organizational support. Some of the activities that Cultura y Salud supports include Dia de Los Muertos, Tonantzin, Fiesta de Colores, Mayahuel, Año Nuevo Maya and at least one of the traditional celebrations that Asociacion Mayab organizes throughout the year.
Group activities also include a community forum on trauma and a gathering of Indigena cultural groups called the Encuentro de Culturas Indigenas de America. Both of these activities are also opportunities for passing information and conduct Information and Referral and Early Identification activities.
Outreach and Engagement
Street outreach is focused in areas where the target population concentrates such as the Cesar Chavez Street corridor, Mission and 16th Street area and the Civic Center area. Venue based outreach will be conducted during the group activities of the program and during sports events and other cultural events organized by local Indigena organizations. Outreach is intended to provide information to Indigena families about the program and about resources available in the community for health and mental health services.
Early Identification, Intervention, and Individual & Family Therapy
During the group activities a Early Intervention/Mental Health Specialist is present to provide one-on-one support to individuals and families that request mental health services. If needed the EI/MHS provides crisis intervention and short term mental health services and/or refers individuals to IFR’s outpatient clinic or other services within IFR or other agencies as appropriate. Promotores the Salud and other program staff are also present to support families with referrals to services and information about community resources for mental health and other social services. Early intervention includes brief counseling for risk reduction and triaging into the system of care as indicated. Clients receiving early identification services stay in our program for up to 3 months or upon successful linkage to appropriate services.
Individual interventions including HERR counseling, crisis intervention and linkage are provided by an Early Intervention/Mental Health Specialist. If as a result of the services provided in this program, clients are determined to require outpatient care, they are linked to IFR’s outpatient services or other appropriate settings for treatment, including mental health services, psychiatric monitoring and case management.
Indigena Health Promoters
Promoters play a key role in recruitment of participants to attend ceremonies and cultural events, workshops, community forums and the Encuentro de Culturas Indigenas de America. Health Promoters are trained and mentored by professional staff in this collaborative to co-facilitate workshops, community forums and participate as panelists in the Encuentro de Culturas Indigenas de America.
For more information, contact ihwc@ifrsf.org.
