No abstract

This article presents the findings of a pilot study on natural helping among Mexican Americans conducted in a large urban area of the Southwest. Twelve community-identified natural helpers were interviewed using the “Natural Helper Interview Schedule” utilized in previous studies in other parts of the country with European American subjects. As expansion of the earlier studies, the interview schedule was translated into Spanish and assessed for cultural appropriateness. The similarities found between the findings of the Mexican American sample and previous samples may suggest that natural helping is a cross-cultural phenomenon. At the same time, the unique trends identified among Mexican American respondents may indicate a stronger family connection to natural helping processes in this community. Respondents narrated the helping incidents as if the recipients and providers of help were all family members. A series of common trends emerged from the data gathered on helping incidents. Some of these trends suggest that natural helpers assisting recent immigrants used a doing type of helping style, but a facilitating style of helping was also reported for other recipients. Although these findings cannot be generalized, they provide important information about community-based natural helping networks and provide beginning comparison about natural helping characteristics among different ethnic groups. These findings can be of use by practitioners and policy makers as they attempt to reach the Mexican American community in a culturally competent manner.

We know that we have to pull together and just challenge what we're facing. A lot of times it's teamwork that keeps us together, working together and understanding each other… My dad was an elder and he used to always tell me you have to help other people no matter what. So that's how we were raised, so we are just like that.

No abstract

The authors studied the perceived effectiveness of 200 natural helpers in two geographic regions of the United States. Results indicated that helper effectiveness was associated with helper gender, age, relationships, problem type, and helping style. Clinicians and helpers agreed that the help was effective.