Bilingual International Assistant Services

Providing Interpretation and Social Services in the St. Louis Are for over 12 years

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Collaborative Efforts to Improve Refugee Health

Collaborative Efforts to Improve Refugee Health

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Hisako Matsuo, Ph.D. (right), the principal investigator of the grant, poses with Julia Ostropolsky (center), CEO of BIAS, and co-PI Lisa Willoughby, Ph.D. (left). Photo by Xiaoyu Wu, aviation science graduate studentST. LOUIS (Nov. 5, 2015) — Saint Louis University has been awarded a three-year $335,237 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH).

Hisako Matsuo, Ph.D., professor of sociology and research methodology and a core faculty member of the Public and Social Policy Program in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology; and Lisa Willoughby, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychology, will partner with the community organization Bilingual International Assistant Services (BIAS) for this research project.

The goal of the grant project, “Steps to Better Health for Immigrants and Refugees: Reaching the Community through Evidence-based Practice,” is to improve health outcomes for immigrants and refugees by developing a program using health coaches who are familiar with participants’ languages and cultures in order to facilitate changes in health behaviors. The grant begins Nov. 1, 2015 and ends April 30, 2018.

Matsuo heads the Health Policy Research (HPR) Lab of her department, which focuses on applied and community-based research relevant to health issues to address health disparities. The MFH grant proposal was based on the results of needs assessment of immigrants and refugees funded by Community-University Health Research Partnership (CUHRP) grant through St. Louis Regional Health Commission.