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Cultural Sensitivity: What Should We Understand About Latinos?

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The Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity in Mental Health

Part of the book series: Current Clinical Psychiatry ((CCPSY))

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Abstract

The Latino population is increasing at a rate far surpassing the capacity needed to understand and respond to their mental health needs. In the next 20 years, Latinos will account for one in every three persons born in the USA. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, one in every four newborns is Latino and by 2050, 82% of US growth will be attributed to the Latino population. The Hispanic/Latino community is expected to reach 28.6% of the United States (US) population by 2060 making it the nation’s largest and youngest racial and ethnic group. This dramatic demographic shift raises questions about whether or not mental health systems will be able to address the needs of this rapidly growing and diverse Latino population. In this chapter, we review the demographic shifts in the Latino community in the USA, the prevalence of mental illness and substance use disorders, biomedical aspects relevant to this community, as well as mental health disparities in access and quality of care faced by Latinos. In addition, we discuss cultural aspects relevant to Latinos as well as provide recommendations for clinicians to consider when caring for this population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR, USA

    Aida L. Jiménez

  2. Disparities Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Margarita Alegría

  3. Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Margarita Alegría

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA

    Richard F. Camino-Gaztambide

  5. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Lazaro V. Zayas

  6. Department of Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA

    Maria Jose Lisotto

  7. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Maria Jose Lisotto

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  1. Aida L. Jiménez
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  2. Margarita Alegría
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  3. Richard F. Camino-Gaztambide
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  5. Maria Jose Lisotto
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Correspondence to Aida L. Jiménez .

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  1. American Psychiatric Association, Arlington, VA, USA

    Ranna Parekh

  2. Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Nhi-Ha T. Trinh

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Jiménez, A.L., Alegría, M., Camino-Gaztambide, R.F., Zayas, L.V., Lisotto, M.J. (2019). Cultural Sensitivity: What Should We Understand About Latinos?. In: Parekh, R., Trinh, NH. (eds) The Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity in Mental Health. Current Clinical Psychiatry. Humana, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20174-6_11

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