MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE LATINO COMMUNITY: A SUBJECT MATTER WE CANNOT CONTINUE TO IGNORE!

In our last article, we were able to conclude that susceptibility to mental illness in Latinx communities is the same as the general population. Latin Americans are no less or more likely to suffer from a range of mental health issues than any other group in America. It’s far more common than we think. In fact, we discovered that over 9 million Latin Americans suffer from some type of mental health issue. Some common mental health conditions that Latinos suffer from tend to be “generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD, and an excessive use of drugs and alcohol” according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (www.nami.org).

Despite experiencing mental illness to the same degree as the general population, access to and quality of treatment is quite disproportionate. Only about 33% of Latin American adults receive yearly treatment for their mental illness, in comparison to the average 43% in the United States. This disparity leaves room for more severe and long-lasting forms of mental illness.

So why? Why must Latinos suffer more for something that is so common and treatable? Why aren’t Latinos seeking proper treatment for their mental health?

Well, to get to the root of the problem, I think that the question must be rephrased. To understand the full scope of the issue we must look at it from a different angle. Instead of asking “why aren’t” Latinos seeking treatment, we should ask “why can’t” Latinos seek treatment. What is preventing them from doing so? What is holding them back? The answer, it’s a lot… It’s our culture, our privacy, our shame, our religion, our poverty, our language barriers, our social stigma. There are so many reasons as to why Latin Americans can’t/don’t seek treatment.

There is a general stigma around being a person who is mentally ill. If you are mentally in some capacity, you are portrayed as some emotionally unstable individual who others should be weary of. Mentally ill people tend to not be respected or validated. With these stigmas comes the shame and reluctance to talk about these issues.  This leads to a lack of knowledge and information about the topic. “We cannot know what nobody has taught us. Many Latinos do not seek treatment because they don’t recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health conditions or know where to find help” according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

Latino communities also tend to be private about challenges at home or in their personal life. There’s a common idiom in Spanish that goes “la ropa sucia se lava en casa.” It translates to “the dirty clothes are washed at home.”  It basically means that what happens in your home or personal life, stays at home or to yourself. This is a big part of our culture, so to challenge this key notion is to go against everything you’ve been taught, which is a whole another issue. It’ll leave more to discuss next month though. Thanks for listening, till next time!