Robert Rosales, PhD 鈥�18
Rosales, who expects to graduate this coming August, counts health access and disparities among Latino populations聽as his research interests. He is writing a dissertation with the working title 鈥淚f You Build it, Will They Come? Assessing the Structural and Social Characteristics of Hispanic Serving Organizations.鈥�
Here, he delineates the important points to a recent paper published in聽Social Work in Health Care.
The Latino Research Seminar (LRS) consists of a group of researchers in the Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW) who study the wellbeing of Latinos in the United States. The LRS is a branch of the Latino Leadership Initiative, a BCSSW program created to train social workers to work with Latino communities. Members of the LRS recently coauthored the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare鈥檚 Grand Challenge on the聽.听The following details an overview of an article, authored by two of the LRS members (Associate Professor聽Roc铆o Calvo聽and myself) and聽,听that examines the importance of integrating cultural values in mental health services to create greater access for Latinos.
The issue:聽Latinos鈥� underuse of mental health services is a pronounced issue in the United States. Although Latinos have similar rates of mental health disorders than non-Latino whites, they are less likely to use mental health services and more likely to face barriers when seeking those services. Researchers in previous literature suggest that certain, traditional cultural values can help inform Latinos鈥� use of mental health services. Latinos who adhere to聽fatalismo, a traditional cultural value that suggests fate is in the hands of a higher being, may be less likely to use health services. However, there is little research that examines the association between聽fatalismo聽and mental health service use with a national sample of Latinos.
The idea:聽Using data from the聽, we examined the relationship between mental health service use and fatalistic beliefs in a nationally representative sample of 707 Latinos with a history of depression. We further examined if other access factors (i.e. English proficiency, health insurance coverage, a regular place of care) could better explain this relationship.
The findings:聽聽We found that:
- Latinos who reported fatalistic beliefs were less likely to use mental health services than their non-fatalistic counterparts, even after accounting for access factors.
- Fatalismo聽and access factors were similarly impactful in predicting mental health service use.
The next steps:聽Latinos鈥� use of mental health services is important to their mental wellbeing. Reducing the barriers they face would create greater access and assist in their use of these services. According to the findings, Latinos with fatalistic beliefs are less likely to seek mental health services even when other access factors are controlled. These findings suggest there is the need to incorporate聽fatalismo聽within the recruitment of Latinos to mental health services.
The takeaway:聽Social workers are at the forefront of mental health services that work with Latinos. Prior literature indicates that Latinos who feel culturally understood are more likely to use mental health services and trust their mental health provider. Therefore, greater attention to the role of聽fatalismo, as well as access factors, in Latinos鈥� decision to use mental health services could help to alleviate the barriers Latinos face when seeking mental healthcare.