Stigma and Latina/o Mental Health: Barriers to Care
Each year, Springtide invites a BIPOC fellow (a social scientist of color in training or in early career) to engage the work we do studying young people under 25. This year, we’ve had the privilege of working with Dr. Kitzia Moreno-Garza, a clinical psychologist who focuses on children and adolescents and who specializes in how mental health intersects with cultural phenomena, including religion. For Mental Health Awareness Month, Dr. Moreno-Garza shares her experiences researching and working with Latino/a young people. Below, she discusses the stigma that surrounds mental health.
A Note on Terminology
“This is what our teachers must understand; that language is never neutral. That no matter how skilled we can become in understanding the complexities of language, we cannot forsake the liberating or oppressive power of language.” — Paulo Freire, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire’s quote illustrates a fundamental challenge in researching the Latina/o community: there is little to no consensus on language. The identification of communities of Latin American descent as non-White, White, Hispanic, Chicano, Latina/o, Latinx, and Latiné is embedded in (and shaped by) a history of oppression, empowerment, and change. Each of these terms evokes resonance and recognition for some, while leaving others feeling alienated—even angry. The truth is that the Latina/o community is made up of vastly different origins, ancestral histories, races, cultures, and geographies. It’s no wonder that a single word cannot fully encompass the range of Latina/o identities.
This Mental Health Awareness Month, we will focus on stories at the intersection of faith, Latinidad, and mental health. You will see us use the identity terms listed above interchangeably, and we will always use the terms that our many guests in this series prefer to use when self-describing. For our blog posts, we will use the term Latina/o, but we encourage you to substitute Latina/o with the term that you feel best represents you.
My mother has always been so supportive of my career as a psychologist and sees the value in the work I do—for other people. Yet, when it comes to our own family, mental health is viewed as something often blown out of proportion, with a simple fix. My sibling has struggled with depression, and when we’ve talked to Mom about it, her fix is, “Oh, she just needs to walk more.” As a clinician, but also as a sister who cares, I try to explain to her what depression is—our brains are sometimes just wired in certain ways, and some people need therapy to help manage it. My mom truly cares about my sibling, and yet her response is still, “Oh, she just needs to walk more.”
In my interactions with my mom, and in my work with other Latina/o parents, I often see a deeper reality behind these types of responses. Many parents worry that if something is wrong with their child, that means something is also wrong with them—who they are, how they show up, how good they are as parents. This is just one of the many reasons behind the deep mental health stigma we often see in Latina/o communities, and the data show that this pervasive stigma still impacts young people today.
In 2022, Springtide surveyed 10,000 young people, including 2,163 young people who identify as Latina/o, and interviewed 105, 19 of whom identify as Latina/o, about their mental health. The study found that while Latina/o young people report similar rates of anxiety (27% versus 25%), depression (19% versus 19%), and trauma (52% versus 55%) as their peers, they are less likely to access services for mental health (36% versus 48%). Stigma around discussing mental health in Latino communities is one of the most well-documented barriers to Latinos accessing mental health services. Many of the Latina/o interviewees we spoke to express this reality. One interviewee named Bryanna shared that within her community, “mental health is something that is not often talked about, or it’s often really stigmatized.” Another interviewee named Natalie shared that “Latinos don’t really believe in mental health, and it’s not spoken about in past generations, so it’s very new.”
Our survey data also reflect the presence of stigma. Sixty-seven percent of Latina/o young people say they are not comfortable talking about mental health with the adults in their lives. Seventeen percent of Latina/o young people report that they haven’t sought mental health treatment because their parents or guardians do not want them to. JJ, a young Latina/o interviewee, said: “Mental health affects every aspect of you, personally, emotionally, hormonally, and physically. And if you’re in an environment where it’s just not talked about and it’s severely stigmatized, it can put you in a state of mind where mental health isn’t as important as physical health.”
Similarly, Etan, a Latino college student, says the reason he waited so long to book an appointment with a therapist at his campus is because of mental health stigma:
[I] was actually one of the last ones out of my friends to go to talk to someone. And I think it’s just, you have that stigma associated with like, oh, if you’re going to mental health [therapy], it’s because you’re depressed or your life is so screwed up or something, but it’s not like that at all. I couldn’t be happier, to be honest. I am very ambitious and optimistic [about] my future and where I’m going. That’s why I just wanted to talk to someone—to just share those feelings and see if they can offer any professional advice.
Like I saw with my own mother and have witnessed among the Latino families with whom I work, stigma perpetuates the beliefs that mental health is not important, that mental health challenges will resolve themselves, and that mental health care is only appropriate for people who are “severely” ill. Addressing these beliefs with families in therapy often serves as a majority of our first session together. They often share with me their hesitation to open up, their reluctance to begin therapy, and their fear that in meeting with me, they are in some way betraying their family’s trust. I want to share with you the words that I share with my clients:
It is normal to feel scared and nervous the first time you are trying something new. We can even talk about that fear, hesitation, and uncertainty in our time together. You can also decide to stop, pause, or discontinue therapy at any time. The truth is, everyone has a mental health, though we usually only talk about our mental health when we are struggling with it. Like our physical health, our mental health benefits from regular check-ins, whether things are okay or not okay. It’s okay to take things at your own pace. You decide what we do or do not talk about. It is not betrayal to want to heal. As a human in this world, you have already been through a lot, and you deserve a space where you can be unconditionally heard.
Dr. Kitzia Moreno-Garza
Springtide BIPOC Research Fellow
Dr. Kitzia Moreno-Garza
Springtide BIPOC Research Fellow
EIGHT FACTS about the Mental Health & Well-Being of Latina/o Young People
References
Eghaneyan, B. H., & Murphy, E. R. (2020). Measuring mental illness stigma among Hispanics: a systematic review. Stigma and Health, 5(3), 351. https://doi.org/10.1037/sah0000207
Friere, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum.
Washburn, M., Brewer, K., Gearing, R. et al. (2022). Latinos’ conceptualization of depression, diabetes, and mental health-related stigma. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 9, 1912–1922. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-021-01129-x
