Working in Mental Health Centres in the United States requires a lot of commitment to cultural competencies considering that the ethnic proportions of America’s population are changing rapidly. Research shows that United States minority proportion is almost 101 million (Reyes, Hadley, & Davenport, 2013). This therefore means that as a training coordinator in mental health centers one requires to let his or her new members of staff understand how to deal with patients from various cultures. This essay will focus primarily on how to handle Latinos and African Americans in mental health settings.
Perception to Mental Health Treatment
Latinos and African Americans have different perspectives when it comes to mental health treatment. Both do not value such treatments, and few make attempts to seek for such services since they are usually apprehensive (Mental Health America). Therefore it is important for the staff to make efforts to look for these patients out
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Access to Mental Health Services
Latinos who live in America usually come from at least 20 different countries meaning that the policies regarding access and provision to mental health services balanced. The African Americans do not have much access to mental health due to perceived discriminatory practices (Mental Health America).
Prevalence of Mental Health Issues
Mental health concerns are very prevalent of both Latinos and African Americans considering that they are considered immigrants. Research shows that African Americans are 20 % more likely to have depression as compared to Whites (Mental Health America). On the other hand, Latinos are likely to have mental health issues due to various immigration issues and failure to fully integrate them into American system.
Acceptance of Help
Latinos are less likely to accept help from mental health practitioners because of mistrust which is contributed by how they are treated at the national level (Acosta, 2008). African Americans may also be apprehensive in accepting help, but the practitioners can change this attitude through intensive training to change such attitudes.
Utilization of Mental Health Facilities
Latinos tend to underutilize mental health services in as much their prevalence rates are higher as compared to other ethnic communities in the US (Acosta, 2008). African Americans similarly tend to utilize mental health centers as result of mistrust accumulated from past discriminations (Mental Health America).
Outcomes of Interventions
Considering that these two populations are at a high risk of mental health issues various interventions have been made both at the state and national levels to help alleviate the prevalence rates. This has led to change in attitudes and perceptions among these populations.
In conclusion, it is important to be culturally competent while working in mental health institutions and centres. This is so since the American population is mixed with many individuals drawn from various nationalities. Knowing their attitudes, perceptions, and uptake of mental health interventions will go a long way in ensuring that access to mental health services is at its optimum.
References
Acosta, H. (2008). Do’s and don’ts when working with Hispanics in mental health. National Resource Center for Hispanic Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.nrchmh.org/attachments/DoAndDont.pdf.
Mental Health America. Black & African American Communities and Mental Health. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/african-american-mental-health.
Reyes, H., Hadley, L. & Davenport, D. (2013). A comparative analysis of cultural competence in beginning and graduating nursing students. ISRN Nursing, 2013: 929764 .
