Equity from the Start: Latino/a/x Families’ Experiences with Tele-Education and Telehealth due to COVID-19

With COVID-19, home visiting programs for young children and their caregivers have shifted to telehealth and tele-education – a shift that has exacerbated the psychosocial, education, and mental health disparities in poor communities of color, but also highlighted the resilience and adaptive capacity of Latino/a/x families. This transition involves fundamental shifts in how families perceive and approach the care they receive, and how providers create meaningful interactions with families and young children. Yet organizations and providers are unsure of how families are experiencing telehealth and/or tele-education, leading them to make decisions that are not informed by data or responsive to families’ strengths and needs. Using data from focus group conversations with Latino/a/x caregivers who have participated in telehealth and/or tele-education, this project will improve our understanding of Latino/a/x families’ uses of and experiences with telehealth and tele-education, targeting not only barriers to access, but also families’ strategic leveraging of services. In addition, the project will support the development of practice and policy guidelines that will be disseminated to the Together for Kids Coalition’s 50+ partner organizations and agencies.