Growing up in southern Texas as a third-generation Mexican American, Gilberto Perez Jr. was familiar with some of the challenges immigrants face.
That fueled his efforts as a social worker in Indiana, where he’s worked with community mental health centers to fill the gap in services for people who need mental health help. In the early 2000s, through a community health assessment, he found that many people (86% of the respondents) felt lethargic and depressed several times a week. It also became clear that people didn’t know where to find help.
In 2007, he created the “Bienvenido” curriculum and program, initially designed around that original health assessment. Perez Jr. said the state recognized that the program – Bienvendio means “welcome” in Spanish — encouraged people to seek help at health centers.
His program first received a contract to train others across Indiana. Then in 2008, the National Network to Eliminate Behavioral Health Disparities (NNED) and the National Latino Behavioral Health Association nominated the program as one of 16 “community defined evidence projects” — efforts that use cultural and or community guides to improve the availability, quality and outcomes of behavioral health care.
Read more at MinnPost.com.
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