In our fifth guest blog from Dr. Olivia Carter-Pokras's Health Disparaties Course, second year MPH student Jessica Bunting tackles the issue of mental health treatment for Latino Americans.
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Sponsored by the Greater Washington Area Latino Mental Health Network and the University of Maryland School of Public Health’s Center for Healthy Families, The Identities in Transition: A Multicultural Perspective of Immigration conference took place on April 18. The event covered a wide range of mental health issues including mental health equity, domestic violence, adolescent delinquency, mental health care, school readiness and parenting.
According to the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, the U.S. mental health system is ill-equipped to meet the needs of racial and ethnic minority populations. A number of barriers deter ethnic and racial minority group members from seeking treatment, and if individual members of groups succeed in accessing services, their treatment may be inappropriate to meet their needs.
For instance, Wells et al. (2001) found that Hispanics possess less access to care, poorer quality of care and greater unmet need for alcoholism, drug abuse, and mental health treatment than do Whites. Hispanics are also nearly half as likely to receive active treatment as Whites, even after controlling for socioeconomic status.
Evidence suggests that Latinos experience depression and other mental health problems at a higher rate than whites, and certain segments of the Latino population are at particular risk. The Latino Consortium of the American Academy of Pediatrics Center for Child Health Research found Latina adolescents girls are significantly more likely than white and black girls to have attempted suicide. According to Diaz et al (2001), mental health difficulties experienced by many gay and bisexual Latino men in the U.S. are directly related to a social context of oppression that leads to social alienation, low self-esteem, and symptoms of psychological distress.
Several factors contribute to these disparities—for instance, lack of health insurance and living in poverty are important barriers to care for Latinos. Language barriers may prevent Latinos from learning about resources available to them, as many mental health resource materials are only printed in English, and many counselors and therapists only speak English.
In addition, many resources, treatment techniques, programs, and materials are geared specifically toward white American culture, creating a need for programs that specifically target mental health services to minority and immigrant populations in high poverty areas.
Different cultures experience the same mental health issues in different forms with different symptoms. Cultural ideals, traditions, mental health symptoms and ways of coping and looking at mental illness may vary.
In the Latino community specifically, machismo, an important concept in the Latino community, can affect the way the community as a whole views certain issues, such as homosexuality or bullying. Latino children can become withdrawn and depressed or begin acting out if they lack social support because parents have to work long hours.
Cultural competency training is therefore imperative for mental health professionals. Latinos’ strong family and faith base influence their support system and mental health coping mechanisms. Mental health workers should utilize these family and faith-based networks as part of their treatment plan for someone experiencing a mental health issue.
For more information about Latino mental health, visit these sites below.
National Council of La Raza - http://www.nclr.org/
Culturally Specific Mental Health Resources - http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cre/resource3.asp
American Psychiatric Association - http://www.healthyminds.org/hispanicmh.cfm
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