Review of: Creating Infrastructures for Latino Mental Health

Reviews the book, Creating Infrastructures for Latino Mental Health edited by Lydia P. Buki and Lissette M. Piedra (see record 2012-16323-000). The reviewers describe this as a timely book that sheds light on the need for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to think creatively on how to meet the mental health needs of a growing Latino population. As noted in the Preface, the overarching theme of the book is that in order to establish the basic organizational structures and facilities required to meet the needs of Latino mental health, there should be a radical change in the status quo. As noted throughout the text, there is a dire need for ample facilities, resources, and bilingual and bicultural personnel, yet there are not enough culturally competent and bilingual professionals available to meet this need. The reviewers believe this book takes a step in the right direction by bringing together scholars from multiple disciplines to tackle this issue. The reviewers conclude that, overall, this book provides a valuable contribution to the Latino mental health field. Although the book tends to focus on a specific segment of Latinos (i.e., immigrant, Spanish speaking) and could have included other segments (e.g., U.S.-born, third generation and beyond, middle class), it is a good first step. In the reviewers' opinion, the book does a good job in providing an overview of infrastructure needs as well as recommendations for how to address these needs, and the editors have done an excellent job in bringing together a diverse group of authors to tackle the challenge of providing the readers guidance on how to address the gap in Latino mental health services. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)