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Within our everyday dialogue on racism, sexism, homophobia, and other
systems of oppression, it is still troublesome to hear little to no
talk on how these issues impact the health of those who are mostly
affected by it.
Latinos often face the excess pressure of acculturation within the context of volatile immigration reforms, deportation, and a host of other issues that can exacerbate existing inequalities.
Given that Latino youth are at the cusp of many of these problems, it is important that Latino communities began to pay more attention to the mental health of their future generations. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), a recent federal study found that Latino high school students use drugs and attempt suicides at higher rates than their African American and White classmates. Surely its important that these federal studies receive the right amount of scrutiny on sampling and methodology, but it would not be too far fetched to consider the uniqueness of Latino youth and their adolescent development, given the vast ethnic and racial variations that exist within the Latino community itself.
Furthermore, dealing with this issue is much more complicated when considering the lack of cultural competency among mental health professionals and the negative perception many Latinos have of the mental health profession overall. Mental health education in the United States is obviously firmly westernized in its pedagogical approach. A comparison of the nature of Latino families versus the traditional nuclear American family emphasizes the divergence of the values and morals of Latino families. This difference is reflected in Latino attitudes towards gender, sexuality, and race. Often many mental health practitioners patronize many aspects of Latino culture and will be quick to label them as “backwards” or “oppressive.” Instead of working from outside the confines of Latino culture, it is best to work within it as a first step towards making mental health services relevant and contextual for Latinos.
Latinos, on the other hand, need to make more strides towards de-stigmatizing mental health services as “cosas de locos” or something for those who are crazy. Unfortunately, there is still a negative perception of therapists as not only being intrusive but in many cases the “trouble makers” who are Americanizing and undermining traditional values and norms. This is especially troubling when it comes to our young people, whose issues and concerns are often overlooked and pushed to wayside as not important. So when looking at issues of drug abuse and suicides, the many reports that show the over representation of Latino youth are indeed alarming and do merit more attention given the many social and cultural hurdles in simply addressing the issue of suicide within Latino communities. This is not to mention the ordinary, everyday pressures of being a teenager overall. As for the CDC, publishing such studies is helpful but the reality is that more policy should be put in place to insure that this disparity get addressed through comprehensive research and simultaneous interventions.
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