Dr. Emily Abel will discuss the establishment of the Los Angeles County Department of Health during 1914 as it was confronted with the overwhelming task of building a public health infrastructure for a burgeoning and diverse population. She will address how Los Angeles County Department of Health reports focused almost exclusively on the various infectious diseases associated with Mexican immigrants, and how segregation of Mexicans occurred in Los Angeles County clinics. She will share documentation of how County health officers participated in efforts to exclude Mexicans during the 1920s and expel them during the 1930s. Lastly, she will cover how both state and local health authorities joined the mid-1930s campaign to remove Filipinos from the county.

The goal of this session is to inform participants about the health status and health behaviors of California Latinos in order to enable them to develop effective research for reducing health disparities among the Latino population. The demographic and contextual characteristics that are essential to understanding the health disparities in Latinos will be highlighted.

Session is to assist participants in developing appropriate measures of social class (individual, household, and neighborhoods) using geocoding, especially for population-based monitoring of social inequalities in health. This will give participants the ability to identify social determinants that contribute to deleterious physical and mental health outcomes.

Session is to assist participants in identifying values and bridging cultures for Latino immigrant families to enable them to develop effective research for reducing health disparities among the Latino population. What strategies and theories are effective interventions for building these bridges?