Santa Clara County looks to fund Latino ‘health promoters’ permanently

LATINO COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS in Santa Clara County, known as promotores de salud or “health promoters,” have for years knocked on doors that others couldn’t. Now the county needs them again — and has plans to make them a permanent part of the region’s public health system.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to pursue options for funding a permanent system of culturally competent, one-on-one clinicians for the county’s most vulnerable Spanish speakers. Officials will look to three Medi-Cal providers in the region — the county’s own Family Health Plan, as well as private insurers Anthem and Kaiser Permanente — to help pay for it. Health officials say an expanded, full-scale army of promotores across East San Jose, South County and San Jose’s Cadillac-Winchester neighborhood would reduce hospital visits and prevent further strain on overflowing emergency departments.