A Participatory Action Research Approach for Identifying Health Service Needs of Hispanic Immigrants: Implications for Occupational Therapy

SUMMARY Recently, the field of Community Occupational Therapy has started to enter into new research areas, one being participatory research. This paper illustrates a participatory research methodology adapted by community residents and a research team to identify the service needs of an underserved Hispanic population as well as set action agendas to meet their needs. In order to plan and implement health programs, community residents participated actively in the needs assessment, action agenda development and brainstorming of solutions to address health and community needs and concerns. Concerns identified included the lack of affordable bilingual dentists and youth involvement in gangs, drugs, and alcohol. The results of the needs assessment were shared and discussed during five public forums in which 180 Hispanics from the community discussed the dimensions of the issues and alternative solutions. This process resulted in an agenda of health issues and ideas for improvement from the perspective of Hispanics. We emphasized the advantages of using participatory methodologies when developing health and community services within Hispanic communities. Additionally, the implications for advancing a Scholarship of Practice agenda for Community Occupational Therapy are discussed.