Day Treatment Programs for the Spanish Speaking: a Response To Underutilization

This article describes how a hospital-based Community Mental Health Centre in California, United States, addressed the problem of underutilization by its Spanish-speaking population. The authors present a clinical program model which can be duplicated without hiring large numbers of bilingual professionals. The program offers a comprehensive range of psychiatric treatment services to a particular minority population, and can be readily adapted to deliver mental health care to any national minority or ethnic subpopulation. All of the services for the Spanish-speaking seek to promote community integration, and are designed to provide therapeutic experiences in a foreign environment while maintaining cultural ties.