Mental Health of Families

     I work with children and their families every day. The state tells us that we are under servicing the Latino 

population of our county and I thought this might be a good opportunity to try and identify barriers. In

"Counseling in Mexico" (Portal, 2010) it was stated that "Religion and spirituality are sources of great 

strength for much of the population in Mexico." "Mexican psychological counselors will need to integrate 

spiritual aspects into the counseling process." This article also refers to the fact that changes in society and 

the amount of poverty has much to do with the increased needs of the people for mental health 

professionals. With money getting harder to come by the family dynamics are changing as mothers and 

children are needing to join the work force. 

    It is clear to me that we as an agency need to be aware of multiple cultural interactions with our county. 

Not only do we need to be educated and aware of historical cultural differences that need to be respected 

but we need to be aware of additional barriers and concerns that have been created simply by logistics. One 

of the biggest barriers for agency and the public is the language barrier. It is estimated that 25 % of the adult 

Latino population in our county speaks English. We always are looking for a therapist that has dual language 

but as of yet we have not had anyone apply. We are a frontier county and it is hard to draw new families. 

One action that we have implemented is that we see children and their families at the school where they 

already are comfortable with staff and the building. It is one less obstacle for the family to overcome.

Portal, E., Suck, A.T., & Hinkle, J. S. (2010). "Counseling in Mexico: History, Current Identity, and Future 

     Trends" Journal of Counseling & Development Association, Winter 2010. Volume 88.