For 24 years, Diana Huerta has been the only member of her family living in the United States. The rest, still in Mexico, are in touch often, but talking to them on the phone doesn’t cure the anxiety and depression she feels from being isolated in a primarily English-speaking area.
Huerta tried to get on the waitlist for the only bilingual therapy clinic in Orange County, El Futuro, but there was always too much demand. Then the Carrboro location shut its doors in 2015 and she lost hope, turning to virtual sessions with a therapist in Colombia just so she could speak with someone who understands her.
“We realized that there is a lot of need, especially in the Hispanic community, about mental health, in the absence of clinics and therapists,” Huerta says in Spanish. “Especially with the language.”
For people like Huerta, meeting with Spanish-speaking program staff would keep her from having to pay steep private therapy costs or look outside the U.S. for mental health support.
In addition to breaching language divides, one of the program’s biggest successes has been in adapting the curriculum. After months of the CHWs watching videos, reading manuals, doing extra training, and working through roleplays, Castro says she is amazed at how well the curriculum works, even in just a short time.
Read more at IndyWeek.com.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.