Practical Barriers

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• Money/healthcare coverage for services
  • About 2-3 times more Black and Latino/a individuals live in poverty than White individuals
  • Lack of insurance is a major barrier to receiving mental health services for some minority groups. According to a 2011 U.S. Census Bureau report, 86% of White women, 79% of Asian women, 77% of Black women, 70% of Native American women, and 63% of Latina women were insured. White Americans are more likely to use mental health services than other ethnic groups. But, if you only consider individuals with insurance, ethnic differences in service use are much smaller.
• Child care and transportation
  • Limited social support and/or money may make it difficult for caregivers to find child care or transportation to make it to their appointments.
• Difficulty handling appointment & waitlist
  • Workers whose schedules change weekly may have trouble scheduling appointments in advance
• Language barriers
  • Language barriers can lead a counselor to misunderstand a caregiver’s concerns.
  • The caregiver may feel uncomfortable expressing intimate feelings for fear of being misunderstood by a counselor who doesn’t speak their language.
  • In 2006, only 20% of mental health providers offered interpreter services.