I. Executive Summary
A growing issue that has emerged within the United States are the issues surrounding mental health and Hispanics. The under usage of mental health services has become a concern in policy which has become progressively significant due to the Hispanic population increasing expeditiously. Studies have proven that a good portion of Hispanic Americans are not receiving necessary mental services (Kouyoumdjian, et al., 2003). Also, the lack of culturally sensitive mental healthcare services has produced a distressing need for Hispanic clients with mental illnesses. The most common mental illness among the Hispanic population is mental illness but within that population, Hispanic women are more likely to suffer from depression
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The discrimination began years ago when their lands were taken (Bosch, 2013a) but it has become more prevalent in terms of legislation (James, 1997). It is suggested, thought the use of stereotypes, stigmas, and labels that Hispanic immigrants are draining the resources which produces barriers with legislatures who set limited access to mental health and governmental services for Hispanic immigrants (James, 1997). Presently, there is a significant increase in regards to the focus of the racial experience of Latinos owing to polarization of public opinion regarding immigrations into the United States (Brown, 2003) which is an example of the critical race …show more content…
Some of these risk factors include: background, acculturation, acculturative stress, and socioeconomic. Other issues, in terms of Hispanic clients not using mental health services are due to the lack of client-therapist ethnic match, the personal biases of therapist in regards to clients, and lack of linguistically compatible services create barriers to effective mental health service delivery for Hispanic clients (Kouyoumdjian, et. al, 2003). Also, the lack of culturally responsive assessment tools and treatment approaches may play a role in understanding the insufficient quality of service delivery. (Institution for Hispanic Health,