Mental health clinics help Latinos bridge language and access barriers
Mental health experts, community clinics and politicians are increasingly calling attention to barriers Latinos may face in seeking mental health treatment and are addressing language and other barriers.
Michelle Mata wasn’t diagnosed with a mental illness until she was 23, after years of suffering. She knew very little about who to ask for help, having grown up in a Latino family in San Antonio that didn’t talk about mental health. At appointments, she was terrified of telling the truth.
“I didn’t want to tell (doctors) that because I knew that as soon as I disclosed what I was feeling my freedom was going to be taken away from me and I was going to be put into the hospital,” said Mata, 53, who talked about her mental health to The Associated Press in the hope of helping others. She now works at the San Antonio chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness as she copes 30 years later with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that just over one-fifth of Hispanic adults reported having a mental illness, defined in the report as a diagnosed mental, behavioral or emotional disorder that may have interfered with their lives. That’s slightly less than white Americans (24.6%) but more than Black Americans (19.7%) and Asian Americans (16.8%).
The same survey showed Hispanic adults were less likely to receive treatment than multiracial adults and white adults. Mental health experts, community clinics and politicians are increasingly calling attention to barriers Latinos might face in seeking treatment — like the lack of mental health professionals who are Latino and speak Spanish or other languages — and working to create new programs to address access issues.
“The more we talk about it and we hear it and we understand it we can do something about it,” said Mata, who is hopeful that younger generations won’t have to struggle like she did. “People don’t understand asking for help is not a sign of weakness. Asking for help is something courageous.”
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