The Hispanic/Latinx(e) population continues to grow in the United States. According to the U.S. Census 2020, Hispanic/Latinx(e) reached 19.1% of the total population (63.7 million), and by 2060 they are projected to be 20.6% of the population. This is the second-largest ethnic group in the United States (Mental Health America, 2023; Pew Research Center, 2023; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022). In addition, Hispanic/Latinx (e) are responsible for the fastest diversification of rural areas of the United States (Melotte, 2022). Due to the lack of access to health insurance, language barriers, and health inequities, this population is at risk of poverty, inadequate health treatments, and increasing substance abuse.
While the Hispanic/Latinx(e) population appears to grow nationwide, some states are more impacted (e.g., New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, California, and Florida) (Bailey, 2019). This brings attention to our training and supervision for mental health providers. According to data from the APA, there were approximately 102,000 doctoral-level licensed psychologists in 2018, most of them in California, New York, and Massachusetts (Lin, Conroy and Christidis, 2020). However, only 5.5% of psychologists can provide services in Spanish (Smith, 2018). More training focusing on this marginalized population is necessary. Lack of training leads to misunderstanding the culture, beliefs, and values, even when our Hispanic/Latinx(e) clients speak English proficiently. When we talk about competence we are not talking only about awareness and knowledge, but the skills necessary to competently deliver services. Competent training leads to competent providers, who will ultimately also be competent and skilled supervisors, to serve the Hispanic/Latinx(e) population.
Telehealth and Telesupervision can be venues to provide training and supervision to providers who reside in states, communities, or rural areas where Hispanics/Latinx(e) reside. The Commission on Accreditation should consider this reality as an important tool towards achieving our ethical standards of responsibility and commitment to providing competent mental health services to this and other marginalized communities.
At the 2024 Practice State Leaders Conference (PSLC) among the topics discussed was the need to provide mental health services to marginalized and diverse communities. In this context, we also discussed the option of expanding the scope of services by including master’s level mental health providers. This is a very sensitive issue that has raised anxiety and concerns among psychologists. One perspective discussed was the importance to recognize and maintain expertise among psychologists.
Recognizing the importance of this topic, Division 31’s Town Hall Guest Speaker Series has organized a presentation on Wednesday June 19 at 7:00pm ET. The title of this presentation is ‘Perspectives on Master’s Licensing in SPTAs.’ Our presenters will be Alex Siegel, JD, PHD from ASPPB, Peter Oppenheimer, PhD Division 31 Regulatory Task Force and Robin McLeod, PhD, APA Practice Directorate, Senior Director for Strategic Relations and Leadership. Stay tuned for announcements to come. RSVP is necessary to attend. You can RSVP through Connie Paul.
References
Bailey, D. (2019, November 26). Hispanic American mental health care gap to reach almost $500 million by 2030. SoftwarePundit. https://www.simplepractice.com/blog/hispanic-american-mental-health-care-gap/
Lin, L., Conroy, J. & Christidis, P. (2020, January 1). Datapoint: Which states have the most licensed psychologists? Monitor. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/01/datapoint-states.
Melotte, S. (2022, February 23). Parts of rural America are adding adult population and diversity, census shows. DailyYonder. https://dailyyonder.com/parts-of-rural-America-are-adding-adult-population-and-diversity-census-shows/2022/02/23/
Mental Health America. (2023, n.d.). Latinx/Hispanic communities and mental health. Retrieved April 26, 2023, from https://www.mhnational.org/issues/latinxhispanic-communities-and-mental-health.
Pew Research Center (2023). Who is Hispanic? [Data set]. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/09/15/who-is-Hispanic.
Smith, B. L. (2018, June). Spanish-speaking psychologists in demand: By learning or perfecting their Spanish, practitioners can better serve a large and growing population. Monitor. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/06/spanish-speaking#
U.S. Census Bureau. (2022, July 1). United States Census: Quick Facts [Data set]. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/.