Latino Adults’ Access to Mental Health Care A Rev

Authors: Leopoldo J Cabassa Luis H Zayas Marissa C Hansen

Publish Date: 2006/04/06

Volume: 33, Issue: 3, Pages: 316-330

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Abstract

Since the early 1980s epidemiological studies using stateoftheart methodologies have documented the unmet mental health needs of Latinos adults in the US and Puerto Rico This paper reviews 16 articles based on seven epidemiological studies examines studies methodologies and summarizes findings about how Latino adults access mental health services Studies consistently report that compared to nonLatino Whites Latinos underutilize mental health services are less likely to receive guideline congruent care and rely more often on primary care for services Structural economic psychiatric and cultural factors influence Latinos’ service access In spite of the valuable information these studies provide methodological limitations eg reliance on crosssectional designs scarcity of mixed Latino group samples constrict knowledge about Latinos access to mental health services Areas for future research and development needed to improve Latinos’ access and quality of mental health care are discussedSupport for work on this article was provided in part by the National Institute of Mental Health Grants R36 MH072172–01 PICabassa and T32 MH19960 PI Proctor An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2006 Society and Social Work Research Conference San Antonio Texas The authors are grateful for the comments of Enola K Proctor and Arlene R Stiffmann on an earlier draft of this paper The authors thank Vanessa Noriega for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript

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