Training Title:
Culture Counts: Mental Health Care for Hispanic Americans

Clock Hours: 2

Objectives:
At the completion of this course, participants will be able to: • List factors that may contribute to disparities that exist in appearance of mental illness and treatment of mental illness among Hispanic Americans • Identify characteristics of Hispanic American culture that may be important to consider in providing treatment for mental illness.

Description:
Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity was written as a supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 1999). It documents the existence of striking disparities for minorities in mental health services and the underlying knowledge base. Racial and ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than do whites. They are less likely to receive needed care. When they receive care, it is more likely to be poor in quality. In Chapter 6, the focus is on exploring mental illness among Hispanic Americans and possible contributing factors. There are significant differences between subpopulations of Latinos, e.g., Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans and Central Americans. These are explored in this chapter. Two more recent surveys, completed in the early 2000s (2001-2003), the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) and the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) provide updated and more comprehensive information about the disparities that exist in the need for and delivery of mental health services for the Latino and Asian American populations. See the following url for more information - http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/CPES/about_cpes/background.jsp. Keywords: Culture, race, ethnicity, Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Spanish-speaking, society, minorities, minority, white, black, Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, native, Indian, mental health, disparity, diversity, poverty, context, immigrant, immigration, surgeon general

Approval Bodies