Senior Legal Helplines and Outreach to Hispanic Seniors
CERA recently completed it 2011 Senior Legal Helpline Annual Report and for the second year, was able
to compare the Hispanic ethnicity of clients to the census of Hispanic seniors in 16 reporting states.
The overall percentage of clients identified as Hispanic in these states was 3% while the Hispanic
population over age 60 in these states was 7%. Interestingly most of the helplines in states with small
Hispanic populations served Hispanic seniors in close proportion to their population:
State
Connecticut
D.C.
Delaware
Georgia
Iowa
Massachusetts
Kansas
Maine
Michigan
Nebraska
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Utah
West Virginia
Texas
Total
% clients
Ethnicity
Hispanic
or Latino
10%
6%
3%
1%
1%
11%
1%
<1%
2%
2%
1%
<1%
1%
7%
<1%
15%
3%
% over 60
Population
Ethnicity
Hispanic
or Latino
5%
4%
<1%
2%
1%
3%
<1%
<1%
2%
2%
1%
1%
1%
5%
1%
21%
7%
A few geographically small states (CT, DC, MA) actually served more Hispanic seniors than their
proportion of the population. UT also served Hispanics well in excess of their presence in the population.
The lower overall Spanish outreach gap appears to stem from TX and FL, states with large Hispanic
populations. TX clients were 15% Hispanic but the over age 60 population is 21% Hispanic. FL reported
6% Hispanic clients compared to 11% of Florida seniors in 2010. While these programs served large
numbers of Hispanic seniors, working to getting the numbers closer to the census is a worthy goal.
We don’t have specific data to determine why these deviations in clients vs. census exist. Based on
information on helpline outreach efforts and locations, here are a few theories:

Helplines with small geographic areas are able to more easily speak to Hispanic senior groups,
attend Hispanic events, and otherwise engage in fruitful personal contacts throughout the
state;


In large states, Helplines located in a city with a large Hispanic population can more easily make
personal contacts and outreach efforts to the Hispanic community; in the states with a large
Hispanic population but fewer Hispanic clients, the Helplines are located in cities far from the
high concentrations of Hispanic residents.
Helplines are happy to accept calls from Spanish speaking clients but because their resources
are already stretched, they make not be making active Hispanic outreach efforts beyond Spanish
brochures or public services announcements which do impact the number of Hispanic clients
much.
Whatever the reasons for the small gap between Hispanic clients served and population
numbers, Helplines receiving funding under the Older Americans Act have a responsibility to
reach and serve minority clients in social need.1
Developing a Hispanic Outreach Program2
Hispanic seniors are calling their legal hotlines so outreach efforts are working to a large degree; it is a
question of building on a solid base.
Trying to get underserved populations to use the senior hotline in greater numbers requires multiple
strategies, persistence, and sensitivity to the target audience. To determine how to get Hispanic clients
to use our services, we need to know something about Hispanic culture in general as well as some
specifics about the particular communities in the helpline states. Keep in mind that “Hispanic culture” is
a very broad term and that many differences exist among nationalities labeled ethnically Hispanic.
Hispanic seniors are individual clients and may not possess any of the cultural features listed below but
it is helpful to become familiar with these broad similarities across Hispanic culture:
1
The Older Americans Act references in various sections states that services under the Act be directed to
seniors in social or economic need: Section 102 (33) the term “Legal Assistance” - (A) means legal advice and
representation provided by an attorney to older individuals with economic or social needs; Section 102 (24)
(24) The term ‘‘greatest social need’’ means the need caused by non-economic factors, which include—
(A) physical and mental disabilities;
(B) language barriers; and
(C) cultural, social, or geographical isolation, including isolation caused by racial or ethnic status, that—
(i) restricts the ability of an individual to perform normal daily tasks; or
(ii) threatens the capacity of the individual to live independently.
2
Various points on Hispanic culture in this article are drawn from: Developing a Hispanic Outreach Program
That Works, Ana Torres-Davis, A.T. Quarterly, (Assistive Technology) Volume 5, Number 1 (1994) RESNA TA Project,
Arlington, VA.




Use of the Spanish language, especially among Hispanic seniors;
Importance of the family and religion in daily life;
Personal nature of relationships, even business ones.
Less direct forms of speaking than American culture.
Reaching Out to the Community
Say it in Spanish
Many Hispanic seniors will need to be reached and served via Spanish. A quick review of senior helpline
websites showed that most have a way to access information in Spanish somewhere on their site.
However, in many instances, the link to Spanish is several clicks away from the homepage, which would
be a big impediment to someone looking for information in Spanish. In the case of Utah Legal Services,
the link to Spanish is prominently displayed on their home page and that Senior Helpline served seniors
in a greater number that their population. We can’t claim cause and effect but it has to help when you
don’t have to read English in order to find the Spanish pages. While we have no data showing how many
Hispanic seniors learn about their legal helpline from the web, a user friendly website is such a basic
component of outreach, we recommend that the helplines review their website to make sure a Spanishspeaking user can get to the helpline information easily. (use the previous phrase for sidebar) If you
have a way to get a limited English Hispanic senior to test your website usability, that would be ideal.
Highlight Legal Issues Hispanics Call About
All outreach efforts to Hispanic seniors should include Spanish, whether through individual
spokespeople, radio, local newspapers, flyers, or brochures. Some input from senior helpline managers
indicates that general Spanish public service announcements are not effective in increasing call volume
from Spanish listeners or readers. A better approach, one with some evidence of success in English
language local newspapers, is linking the announcement about the legal helpline to a specific legal issue
that Hispanic seniors might be having. That increases the probability that the senior will recognize the
issue as his own in real time and call the number, especially if it runs on a station or in a newspaper they
know and trust. What issues to select? If your helpline gathers demographic data from clients, it should
be able to run a report linking Hispanic seniors with the legal problem codes they call about most
frequently. The helpline can then prepare flyers, announcements, columns for newspapers, with
information about the issue and the helpline services.
Meet and Greet in Person
Given that, culturally, Hispanic seniors are more trusting of personal relationships, the most important
effort is to reach out directly to Hispanic seniors and agencies in the target communities. Sending
Spanish speaking staff with Hispanic cultural ties to network with community organizations and meet
directly with seniors in housing, senior centers, churches, will show the community that important
personal face for your helpline and build trust. This is fairly easily accomplished if your helpline is
headquartered in Miami, San Antonio, or Los Angeles. But most of us are trying to serve the whole state
with offices in cities other than the Hispanic centers of population. It may be possible to partner with
long distance colleagues to serve as the helpline surrogate – to be your face and voice in those far away
cities – to develop trust in the helpline and boost usage where it is needed.
Have Staff that Understands
When Hispanic seniors call your helpline, you want to make sure they have a good experience and
spread your service by word of mouth. If possible, having a bilingual hotline advocate is a huge
advantage over a translation service. Successfully providing hotline services to Hispanic seniors also
requires your staff to be sensitive to the cultural features mentioned above. If your bilingual advocate is
actually Hispanic that will go a long way to increase the comfort level of your callers. Word will get
around that you have a Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, etc. lawyer to talk to, and seniors
who would not be comfortable talking with someone from outside their culture will be more willing to
call and tell their friends. Also, an advocate from a Hispanic culture is more likely to navigate the less
direct speech the Hispanic senior may use to explain his situation.
The importance of the family often means that the senior will have family members present and
participating in the conversation. Decisions are likely to be made as a family rather than by the
individual. In addition to the cultural aspect of family participation, the hotline advocate needs to pay
special attention to client confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and the client’s actual desires regarding
the issue in these situations.3
Did it Work?
We would love to hear from you about your experiences implementing outreach and services to
Hispanic seniors and the impact it makes on the numbers of Hispanic callers. Knowing about your
successes and dead ends helps other programs enormously. If you try any of these ideas, please let us
know how it worked out.
3
Books on Cultural Diversity:
Brislin, R. Working with Cultural Differences, Dealing Effectively with Diversity in the Workplace, Praeger, 2008.
Locke, D.C. Increasing Multicultural Understanding: A Comprehensive Model, 2d. ed. Sage Publications Inc.,
1998.
Mcadoo, H.P. Editor. Family Ethnicity: Strength in Diversity. Sage Publications, Inc., 1999.
Cushner, K., Brislin, R. Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide. Sage Publications Inc., 1996.
Pederson, P. A Handbook for Developing Cultural Awareness. 3rd Ed. American Association for Counseling and
Development.