Long Beach Medical Center

The Hispanic and Latino populations living in the Nassau County communities on the southern shore of Long Island have increasing health disparities, due to numerous barriers—the residents’ low income, limited education, long working hours, language differences, and distrust of government institutions because of their immigration status.

The goal of the project was to improve the overall health status of Hispanic/Latino residents of Long Beach Island, Island Park, and Oceanside through increased awareness of disease prevention, health education, and early intervention for conditions such as asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental and emotional problems, and addiction.

This grant to Long Beach Medical Center supported the Healthy Sundays Program, a project to improve access to health information and screenings for uninsured local Hispanic/Latino communities through collaboration between community health liaisons and health professionals at two Catholic parishes.

Major project activities included: (1) weekly presentations by the parish priest and a Church Health Liaison on common health concerns; (2) monthly presentations by health professionals about chronic disease prevention and management for conditions such as diabetes and breast cancer; and (3) monthly screenings for chronic diseases.

Long Beach Medical Center is a nonprofit community hospital that is the major health care provider for residents of Long Beach and the surrounding communities in Nassau County.