Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers

Dade County, Florida

a private, non-profit, community-based organization founded in 1972

Program Objective

To provide primary preventive social, health, nutrition, and mental health services to monolingual Spanish-speaking immigrants at risk due to socioeconomic and language limitations, and social isolation.

Outreach Model

An Intake and Assessment questionnaire is applied to prospective participants in the Activities & Nutrition Centers to determine status and possible special needs in order to provide effective counseling and necessary referrals. The intake process triggers the outreach to persons with serious mental illness:

• Assessment is made of the client’s mental and emotional functional status.
• Permission to contact relatives is sought to assess family awareness.
• Those identified as at-risk are offered the opportunity to consult with a volunteer psychiatrist.
• The same process is followed when staff identify deterioration in current participants.
• Every attempt is made to link the older adult with preventive mental health activities internally and to make appropriate referrals.

For more information, contact Ariela C. Rodriguez, PhD

Phone: 305-858-0887 x 238, Fax: 305-854-2226

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