Psychotherapy and ethnic minorities.

Abstract

Let us begin with a demographic fact: Members of ethnic minority groups are neither major users of traditional psychotherapy nor purveyors of psychotherapy in anything like their proportion in the population. Indeed, it is relatively rare, statistically speaking, for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Native American Indians to use psychotherapy in the formal sense in which the term is ordinarily used. The same statement can be made for most forms of private or third-party supported services in the field of mental health including treatment for alcohol addiction, drug addiction,

Culturally centered psychosocial interventions

“…Ethnic minorities often have less access to health care, and the care that is available is frequently of poorer quality than that available to the White population (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). Ethnic minorities experience disproportionately higher poverty and social stressors associated with psychological and psychiatric conditions than do Whites (Mays & Albee, 1992; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2000). In fact, after controlling for variables such as socioeconomic status, educational level, health and mental health history, and attitudes toward health-related issues, there are significant disparities in the use and quality of mental health services among and across different ethnic, cultural, and racial communities (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 1999).…”

Intervention Development and Cultural Adaptation Research With Diverse Families

“…During the last two decades, a rich clinical literature on ethnicity and culture has evolved that serves to inform clinical practice in family therapy (Boyd-Franklin, 1989;Chao & Kaslow, 2002;Comas-Díaz & Griffith, 1988;Falicov, 1983Falicov, , 1998Imber-Black, 1988;Jalali, 1988;Lee, 1996;McDaniel, Lusterman, & Philpot, 2001;McGoldrick, Giordano, & Pearce, 1996;Montalvo, Gutierrez, & Falicov, 1988). Another literature on ethnicity and minorities also called attention to the problems of treating ethnic and language minorities with conventional psychological approaches, suggesting the need to adapt treatments (Aponte, Younng Rivers, & Wohl, 1995;Bernal, Bonilla, & Bellido, 1995;Bernal & Sáez-Santiago, 2005, 2006Betancourt & López, 1993;Casas, 1995;Comas-Díaz & Griffith, 1988;Domenech-Rodríguez & Wieling, 2004;López et al, 1989;Mays & Albee, 1992;Nagayama Hall, 2001;Pendersen, 2003;Ponterotto, Casas, Suzuki, & Alexander, 1995;Sue & Zane, 1987). Recently, practice guidelines have been published for working with multicultural (American Psychological Association, 2002) and ethnic minority populations (Council of National Psychological Associations for the Advancement of Ethnic Minority Interests, 2003), and a new literature has emerged around the issue of multiculturalism and cultural competence (Sue, Arendondo, & McDavis, 1992;Sue & Torino, 2005).…”

“…Treatment and intervention research lags behind in developing, adapting, and testing novel approaches with diverse populations (Bernal & Scharrón-del-Río, 2001;Mays & Albee, 1992), and clinical trials are certainly not characterized by the diversity in their samples (Miranda, Nakamura, & Bernal, 2003). A challenge for our field is the articulation and documentation of how ethnicity and culture play a role in the treatment process and how interventions may need to be adapted or tailored to meet the needs of diverse families.…”

Access to Mental Health Services: The Struggle of Poverty Affected Urban Children of Color

“…Treatment effectiveness has been demonstrated for some psychosocial interventions aimed at ameliorating a number of adult psychiatric disorders. However, treatment-outcome studies are still lagging for children and adolescents-and in particular for urban children of color (Hibbs & Jensen, 1996;Mays & Albee, 1992). Bernal, Bonilla, Padilla, and Perez-Prado (1998) and Miranda (1996) have observed that most treatment-outcome research does not include ethnic groups of color as part of their sample.…”