National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month: CAMFT encourages all minorities to get mental health support

Research from the National Association on Mental Health suggests that one in five Americans experiences a mental illness in a given year. The same research shows that African Americans and Hispanic Americans used mental health services at about one-half the rate of Caucasian Americans and Asian Americans at about one-third the rate.

Culturally competent psychotherapists seek to address these disparities by providing a sensitive, knowledgeable and encouraging place for minorities to address their mental health concerns. Mental illness occurs in all communities, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, religion, income, or other areas of disability.

The California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) believes all people of minority status deserve culturally competent mental health support. In observance of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, the organization is encouraging all minorities to proactively seek out culturally competent therapy to get mental health support.

CAMFT offers a FREE resource site at CounselingCalifornia.com. The site offers a searchable directory of 8,000+ licensed marriage and family therapists. Consumers can search therapists by zip code, language preference, ethnicity and practice specialty. It also offers multiple resources including expert videos on a variety of mental health issues.

"Accessing quality mental health care among minority populations is a very complex issue," said Guillermo Alvarez, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and licensed professional clinical counselor who is a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). "Among the barriers in the use of mental health services facing minority populations is the stigma associated with seeking mental health assistance and the lack of knowledge about the services available. By utilizing FREE resources such as CounselingCalifornia.com, our hope is to connect disenfranchised populations with the help, support and access they need."