Missouri Church Outreach to Latinx Immigrants and Addressing Their Mental Health Issues

• In Event: 1255 - Section on Latina/o Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 5. Stereotypes, Racism, and Social Justice

Abstract

Latino immigrants have steadily moved into new rural areas of the Midwestern United States. This involves adapting to a new community context, new cultures and different local traditions, new races of people, and the mental and emotional effects of dealing with this newness and their potentially adverse effects. Research shows that while Latino immigrants have had fewer issues with psychological problems in their country of origin, once in the U.S. they begin to have higher rates of onset of psychological disorders.
A significant amount of findings state that Latinos are less apt to acquire mental health counseling than other parts of the U.S. population, and this decreased likelihood is more pronounced when they are less acculturated or are new immigrants. Latino/as negative views toward mental illness and psychological services inhibits their desire to seek help. For poorer Latinos who do receive mental health care, there is higher probability that they will end treatment too soon. Depression has been viewed as a personal problem not related to health. Yet, among elderly Latino/as, the demand for mental health care has existed, especially for those dealing with depression.
The local church congregation can play a key role in reaching out to Latino immigrant families, serving as a primary contact and advocate for immigrants dealing with mental illness. The church likely has connections through its members for addressing local human needs. Yet, churches have often struggled with such capital-building resources for reaching out to new ethnic newcomers in their communities.
The theoretical framework informing outreach to new immigrants in this study is the social network and embeddedness theory developed by Portes and Sensenbrenner (1993). This qualitative, case study examines 40 clergy and laity responses on current barriers to outreach in eight congregations in two Missouri communities and why these barriers exist.

Author

• Chad Lee Christensen, University of Missouri, Columbia