Latino focused mental health providers could lose a dozen therapists
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Mental Healthmireya garciaOKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Oklahoma's unbalanced budget has mental health advocate bracing themselves for the deepest cuts they've ever faced.
The Latino Community Development Agency serves as a lifeline to Latinos in many different ways, and one of those is mental health services to offer help to Spanish speakers in need. No funding puts these Oklahoma Latinos at risk.
A budget stand-off at the capitol means state agencies are facing deep cut. The Department Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is looking at the real possibility of ending all out-patient services. This means ending contracts with places like the Latino Community Development Agency.
“To receive services or treatment for mental health is essential, not only for the Latino population, but for everyone in the state of Oklahoma,” says Janys Esparza, director of treatment programs, Latino Community Development Agency.
Esparza also says Latinos in Oklahoma face specific barriers to mental health access. That's on top of the long standing stigma every community experiences. For some in the Latino community, there is a lack of trust in government agencies, and the language barrier.
“Latinos they don't go just anywhere. First of all, they go to a place where they speak the same language, they feel comfortable - that is why for so many years the Latino Agency has been providing linguistically culturally competent services,” says Esparza.
If the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is forced to end all out-patient services, the Latino community development agency could lose between 12 and 15 bilingual therapists. Services for adults and children alike would be limited or non-existent.
If services are cut, it will take much longer than a good financial year to revive the mental health system in Oklahoma. Esparza says that if these cuts happen, Oklahoma could lose 75-percent of its therapists, and that you'd be hard pressed to get those people back once the state figures out its budget.