Use of promotoras de salud in interventions with latino families of children with IDD

Families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) experience unique rewards and challenges caring for their child. Many family interventions have been developed over the years to provide supports to these families and their children. However, few interventions have included racial and ethnic minority families and few researchers have developed and tested culturally competent interventions specifically for these populations. Because Latinos represent the largest racial/ethnic population, they also represent a large proportion of children with IDD and their families. We provide background on parent and family interventions, and those developed for use with Latino families. We then describe the use of the promotora de salud model as a culturally competent intervention mode for Latino families of children with IDD. We describe two parent training programs that used this mode, the results of their evaluation studies, and discuss lessons learned in the context using of a community-based research approach. Lastly, we explore the question of why promotoras were successful in promoting change among mothers of children with IDD by analyzing focus-group data across projects. Our findings suggest that role modeling and the collaborative style promotoras used in providing education promoted change among participants. In conclusion, more interventions are needed to serve Latino children with IDD and their families. The promotora de salud model holds promise as a mode of intervention delivery for these families.