The National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA) was honored to participate at the National 2009 SMP Conference, held in Washington, DC, August 18-20, to support its mission to assist, support, and inform its 54 SMPs nationwide. NHCOA, in partnership with the Administration on Aging, participated in the development and implementation of two conference workshops, “National Hispanic SMP: Strategies for Effectively Serving Hispanic Older Adults” and “Working Effectively with Interpreters.”

The National Hispanic SMP (NHSMP) received great feedback from participants. “National Hispanic SMP: Strategies for Effectively Serving Hispanic Older Adults” was rated as meeting expectations, tailored to the SMP audience, and conveying information that was timely and thorough. The session was interactive and covered three topics: Needs Assessments results gathered from the state of Texas, age sensitivity, and cultural sensitivity.

This is a comment from one of the individuals in the workshop:
“…It is very important to have this information reiterated on a continuous basis because even for those of us who are rather familiar with the concepts illustrated in the presentation, both age sensitivity and cultural competence, it is (important) to be reminded of the importance of these issues. Additionally, I found the specific results of the first Needs Assessment to be interesting and useful, and I look forward to continued information and assistance from the NHCOA-SMP.”

NHSMP had the pleasure to work with the SMP staff to develop and implement the session on “Working Effectively with Interpreters.”  The session was well received, and was rated as very useful in using interpreters during SMP presentations, as well as when recruiting for bilingual volunteers. The National Hispanic SMP looks forward to participating in AoA National Conference events.