Cultural Barriers Affecting Latino Mental Health

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There are certain barriers that affect the mental health care of Latinos such as inadequate sources of treatment and insufficient Latino personnel. Primary care physicians can be responsible for diagnosing their patients’ mental health problems and prescribing medication. However, there is need of improvement on detection and care within the general health care sector because Latinos tend to be misdiagnosed frequently because of their different way of presenting symptoms caused by their culture. For example, Latino present symptoms of depression in the form of bodily aches, pains, feeling nervous and tired (HealthyPlace, 2004). This shows that clinicians must be educated on how different cultures present mental health illness. Furthermore, …show more content…
Most of the acculturative stress can be related to factors such as the language barrier, the deficit in coping resources, lack of support and in many cases their immigration status. To a certain degree the social vulnerability after immigration can lead to depression, substance abuse and even suicide because of the sense of alienation and isolation (Bhugra, 2003). Cultural distance can also be problematic when immigrant parents feel a loss of connection with their acculturated children, and subsequent generations cannot communicate efficiently because of linguistic and cultural barriers. Cultural dissonance can also have an effect in young Latino increasing their probability of mental health, this occurs because young Latino might feel divided between their Latino culture and the culture of the U.S.. Said division might cause young Latinos to feel misunderstood by those around them since their parent don’t comprehend the culture of the United States and their friends pressure them to acclimate further to the mainstream culture. This can lead into depression, substance abuse and get as far as
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