Important psychocultural factors in the delivery of mental health services to lower-class Puerto Rican clients: a review of recent studies.
Literature on the psychological orientation of lower class Puerto Rican clients, their cultural value system, and their expectations for mental health services was reviewed. First, lower-class Puerto Rican client's psychocultural orientation to therapy was seen as relatively dissimilar to that of the typical middle-class American client. Second, differences in expectations of therapy between the Anglo therapist and lower-class Puerto Rican client were described. Factors affecting the minimal use of mental health services by the lower-class Puerto Rican community were also discussed. Recommendations were offered to aid in the amelioration of these problems for Puerto Rican clientele.
D001294:Attitude to Health; D003144:Communication Barriers; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D006801:Humans; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011647:Puerto Rico / Q000208:ethnology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D044465:White People