Mexican Americans and Mental Health
In this interview, Raymundo Rodriguez, executive assistant for the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health discusses his work as one of twenty members of the President’s Commission for Mental Health, as called by President Jimmy Carter. His research focus has been mental health issues affecting Chicano communities in Texas. The commission seeks to understand the mental health needs of Americans and strategize ways to address those needs. In terms of Chicano mental health, Rodriguez says that health care providers are currently grappling with how to be more responsive to the needs of the Spanish-speaking community, and he says more research needs to be done, especially concerning how Chicanos respond to mental health programs, such as those dealing with alcoholism.
Rodriguez explains that Mexican Americans are more reluctant to seek help for mental health issues because of the cost, the language barrier and natural support systems, such as those provided by the extended family. He explores the ways curanderos and health care agencies can cooperate around pediatric issues. He discusses the paradox that people in South Texas cross the border to seek mental health services and reproductive services from Spanish speaking doctors in Mexico. Rodriguez says that agencies in South Texas are developing programs that work with these natural support systems, such as the curandero, to treat the overall well being of the patient. Rodriguez concludes that the professions have been derelict in their service of the Spanish-speaking populations in the United States and that there is a serious need among all professions and agencies to train more Spanish speaking mental health care providers. He ends with the suggestion that Mexican American communities work together to address the issue of mental health, health in a collective, cooperative way.
KEYWORDS
AddictionAgency accountability
Alcoholism
Bilingual Bicultural Service Delivery Models
Bilingualism
California
Chicano Under-representation in the Professions
Chicanos and Medicine
Chicanos in Higher Education
Child-Family Relationships
Children’s Heart Program of South Texas
Community Support Systems
Compadrazgo
Cross-cultural cooperation
Crossing the Border
Cubans
Cultural Relevance
Culturally Inclusive Health Care
Culturally Specific
Curanderas
Curanderos
Down Syndrome
Drinking Patterns
Drug Abuse
Emotional Stress
Emotional Trauma
Extended Family
Federal Agencies
Florida
Health Care in Mexico
Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
Jimmy Carter
Lack of research
Language Barriers
Louisiana
Machismo
Medicaid
Medically Underserved Areas
Medicare
Mental Health and Chicanos
Mental Health Care Delivery
Mental Health Financing
Mental Health Research
Mental Retardation
Mexican American Families
Mexican Americans
New York
Non-Profits
Oklahoma
Presidential Commission for Mental Health
Prevention of Mental Illness
Public Health Programs for Chicanos
Puerto Ricans
Raymundo Rodriguez
Rural mental Health
Service Delivery
Socioeconomic status
South Texas
Southwest