More than a year after a gunman opened fire in an Uvalde, Texas classroom, Monica Muñoz Martinez is still working to connect survivors with mental health resources and raise awareness about the issue.
“There’s still unmet needs and people who are eligible for services still struggle to access those,” said Muñoz Martinez, a university professor who started working with victims’ families and some first responders soon after the May 24, 2022 shooting. “There are resources available but still not everyone knows how to access them, if they are eligible or what they should ask for.”
The lingering struggle in the South Texas town, which is about 82% Latino, underscores the problems with access and even education about mental health in the country. If people continue to struggle to get mental health aid in Uvalde — despite the long spotlight on the trauma of a massacre that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers, and wounded 17 others — then what about others whose troubles are not national calamities?
President Joe Biden emphasized the national struggle this week by announcing new proposed regulations aimed at pushing insurance companies to step up their coverage of mental health treatments.
In 2021, 2 in 5 American adults reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and 44% of high school students reported struggling with persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, social media and gun violence, according to the White House.
“I don’t know what the difference between breaking your arm and having a mental breakdown is — it’s health,” Biden said Tuesday.
The disconnect from services is wider for Latino, Black and Asian adults.
Just 36.1% of Latino adults who had a mental illness in 2021 received services, compared to 52.4% of whites, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health. About 52% of adults with mental illness who identified as multiracial got services, while 39.4% of Black and 25.4% of Asian adults with mental illness received health services that year.
There are a range of reasons why many Latino families are not connecting with mental health services, including higher poverty rates, language barriers, cultural stigmas about seeking professional therapy or counseling, the cost of therapy, a shortage of culturally relevant mental health services and a lack of mental health professionals, especially those with multicultural backgrounds.
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