Commentary: Hispanic Access to Health/Mental Health Services

Currently, the Hispanic population of the United States is growing very rapidly. Despite the significance of this growth and the fact that it is expected that Hispanics will be soon the largest ethnic minority group in this country, the access to health/mental health care for the Hispanic population is rather limited. Many factors are currently affecting the Hispanics' access to health/mental health care services. Among them, cultural and language barriers, insufficient numbers of Hispanic manpower in the health care professions, low educational and socioeconomic levels, the high number of uninsured Hispanics, and ethnic and racial prejudices and discrimination. In this commentary, I address the factors that interfere with the Hispanics' access to health/mental health care, and advance recommendations geared to alleviate and/or resolve this critical problem.