Re-Examination of Mexican American Service Utilization and Mental Health Need

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Abstract
Most discussions of Mexican American mental health need have been limited to analyses of service utilization or rates-under-treatment data. Such analyses have been fairly consistent in showing Mexican Americans to be underutilizers in relation to their occurrence in the general population, and consequently, they have been viewed as a subgroup having greater unmet mental health need than other ethnic subgroups. Yet, these rates-under-treatment studies implicitly assume that the proportion of psychological impairment is equivalent across ethnic sub-groups. Results from recent epidemiologic surveys, and conceptual and methodological shortcomings of the rates-under-treatment method seriously question the accuracy of this approach to need assessment. An alternative conception of mental health need is offered which includes two components believed to be essential to derive an estimate of mental health need for Mexican Americans: the degree to which this subgroup is actually at-risk to develop psychological disorders, and the availability and use of naturally-occurring emotional support networks.