Latino Mental Health Case Study

The first critical factor that has, for many years, prevented Latino families from seeking mental health services is the lack of health insurance. There are a lot of different economic circumstances that leads to a lack of medical insurance. The latest statistics from the U.S. Census show Latinos are the largest uninsured group in the country, with over 30 percent of the population without health coverage.(http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2013/01/24/race-still-factor-in-mental-health-treatment-in-california/). For Latinos not having health insurance they won't seek for any help. They prefer to do other kind of remedies before going to seek for professional help and paying out of pocket. States often have mental health programs that can help the community but Latinos many times don't know about these services. …show more content…
“The whole problem is not that Latinos don’t want services for their family, the problem is...the lack of Spanish-speaking clinicians.” stated Carmen Collado, president of the Association of Hispanic Mental Health Professional. (http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2013/01/24/race-still-factor-in-mental-health-treatment-in-california/). A lack of sufficient bilingual and bicultural mental health professionals usually translates into language barriers and often results in miscommunication and misinterpretations. Language is an important factor associated with the use of mental health services and the effectiveness of treatment. Unfortunately, the number of Spanish-proficient providers remains insufficient to meet the needs of Latinos. If there were more bilingual mental health professionals it would be much easier for Latinos to seek the services. The language barriers is very bad when it comes to explaining the different services for