The consumer-oriented help center offers information about a variety of psychological and emotional health issues pertaining to work, family, relationships, school and disasters. Specific public education campaign topics include warning signs of youth violence, resilience, and mind/body health materials on stress, heart disease and obesity. In the Spanish-language site, all navigation, articles, interactive features and brochure-ordering mechanisms are in Spanish.

“Someone who is not completely fluent in English and speaks Spanish as their first language can go to the Spanish help center and navigate through from start to finish in their native language,” says APA Assistant Executive Director for Practice Directorate Public Relations Luana Bossolo, who oversaw the project.

APA created the site to serve America’s growing Hispanic population, and their need for health education materials. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, there are 44.7 million Hispanics in the United States and 68 percent of Hispanics age 30 and under use the Internet.

“We’ve learned from our mind/body health campaign surveys on stress that Hispanic women tend to be the primary healthcare managers for their families,” says Bossolo. “This Spanish help center is a resource for those women and their families and provides them with pertinent psychological information to help them make informed health decisions.”

—E. Packard