Across the U.S., there is a mental health crisis — according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) one in five Americans have a mental health condition. While issues such as depression and anxiety affect all populations, Latinos’ mental health issues are often related to certain lived experiences, including discrimination, cultural identity, immigration, and unique family and community stressors.
While mental illness vulnerability rates among Hispanics are similar to those of the U.S. population as a whole, Latinos and other minorities have higher rates of untreated mental health concerns. Only 34% of Hispanic adults with mental illnesses receive treatment annually according to NAMI. There are a host of reasons for this, including barriers to care such as cultural stigma and distrust in the healthcare system.
Why are Latinos suffering in silence and what can we do to ensure the health and wellbeing of our Latino community members?
According to the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), “among U.S. adults with mental health disorders, racial/ethnic minorities are only half as likely as Whites to get treatment; they are also more likely to drop out before completing their treatment.” Often, this can be attributed to some Latinos claiming that they don’t want treatment. But it’s not that they don’t want to feel better—let’s explore the underlying causes of this desire to avoid mental health treatment.
While there is certainly a stigma attached to mental health treatment throughout the general population in the U.S. (although this has begun to ease in recent years), the stigmatization of seeking mental health services is exacerbated in Hispanic communities, partially due to a culture of privacy and secrecy. Among Latinos, it is a common belief that these types of challenges are shameful and should be dealt with within the home to avoid unwanted attention on their family that may result from accessing therapy or other services.
Read more at CoolAssociatesLLC.com.
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