Mandates for culturally competent substance abuse and mental health services call for behavioral health providers to recognize and engage cultural issues. These efforts to incorporate culture typically focus on client culture, but provider views of culture can also influence the provision of services. Analysis of 42 semistructured interviews with behavioral health providers suggests that culture is considered by many to be an obstacle to help seeking and treatment of substance-abusing youth. Although some providers do not highlight cultural issues, others conceptualize culture in terms of (a) generalized Hispanic cultural attributes, (b) male-dominant gender roles, and (c) the culture of poverty. Recommendations for provider training on cultural issues focus on ways they might critically consider their ideas about culture.
Antshel, K.M. (2002). Integrating culture as a means of improving treatment adherence in the Latino population. Psychology, Health and Medicine, 7, 435-449.
2.
Araújo, B.Y., & Borell, L.N. (2006). Understanding the link between discrimination, mental health outcomes, and life chances among Latinos. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 28, 245-266.
3.
Asencio, M.W. (1999). Machos and sluts: Gender, sexuality and violence among a cohort of Puerto Rican adolescents. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 13, 107-126.
4.
Balibar, E., & Wallerstein, I. (1988). Race, nation, class: Ambiguous identities. New York: Verso.
5.
Bernard, H.R. (1994). Research methods in cultural anthropology (2nd ed.). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
6.
Bernstein, R. (2004, September 30). Texas moves closer to “majority—minority” status, Census Bureau estimates show. US Census Bureau News. Retrieved September 23, 2006, from http://www.census.gov/PressRelease/www./releases/archives/population/
7.
Brady, M. (1995). Culture in treatment, culture as treatment: A critical appraisal of developments in addictions programs for indigenous North Americans and Australians. Social Science & Medicine, 41, 1487-1498.
8.
Burton, A. (1990). The White woman's burden: British feminists and “the Indian woman,” 1865-1915. Women Studies International Forum, 13, 295-308.
9.
Census Bureau. (2000). State and county quickfacts. Retrieved September 12, 2006, from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html
10.
Corcoran, M., & Corcoran, J. (2001). Retrospective reasons for the initiation of substance use: Gender and ethnic effects. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 10, 69-83.
11.
Cuadrado, M., & Lieberman, L. (2002). Traditional family values and substance abuse: The Hispanic contribution to an alternative prevention and treatment approach . New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum .
12.
De Genova, N., & Ramos-Zayas, A. (2003). Latino racial formations in the United States. Journal of Latin American Anthropology , 8(2) 2-17.
13.
Del Vecchio Good, M., Good, B., & Becker, A. (2003). The culture of medicine and racial, ethnic and class disparities in healthcare. In B. Smedley , A. Stith, & A. Nelson (Eds.), Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care. (pp. 594-625). Washington, DC: National Academies.
14.
Elliott, B.A., & Larson, J.T. (2004). Adolescents in mid-sized and rural communities: Foregone care, perceived barriers, and risk factors. Journal of AdolescentHealth, 35, 303-309.
15.
Finch, B.K., Catalano, R., Novaco, R.W., & Vega, W. (2003). Employment frustration and alcohol abuse/dependence among labor migrants in California. Journal of ImmigrantHealth, 5, 181-186.
16.
Flores, G., Fuentes-Afflick, E., Barbot, O., Carter-Pokras, O., Claudio, L., Lara, M., et al. (2002). The health of Latino children: Urgent priorities, unanswered questions, and a research agenda. Journal of theAmerican Medical Association, 288, 82-90.
17.
Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
18.
Freeman, R.C., Lewis, Y.P., & Colón, H.M. (2002). Handbook for conducting drug abuse research with Hispanic populations. Westport, CT: Praeger.
19.
Gilroy, P. (2000). Against race. Cambridge, MA : Belknap.
20.
Goode, J., & Eames, E. (1996). An anthropological critique of the culture of poverty. In G. Gmelch & W. Zenner (Eds.), Urban life: Readings in the anthropology of the city (pp. 405-417). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
21.
Gordon, A., & Newfield, C. (1994). Critical response I: White philosophy. Critical Inquiry, 20, 737-757.
22.
Guarnaccia, P., & Rodriguez, O. (1996). Concepts of culture and their role in the development of culturally competent mental health services. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 18, 419-443.
23.
Guttman, M. (1996). The meanings of macho: Being a man in Mexico City . Berkeley: University of California Press.
24.
Hall, S. (1992). New ethnicities. In A. Rattansi & J. Donald (Eds.), Race, culture and difference (pp. 252-259). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
25.
Halliday-Boykins, C., Schoenwald, S., & Letourneau, E. (2005). Caregiver—therapist ethnic similarity predicts youth outcomes from an empirically-based treatment . Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 808-818.
26.
Harris, K.M., & Edlund, M.J. (2005). Self-medication of mental health problems: New evidence from a national survey. Health Services Research , 40, 117-134.
27.
Harrison, F. (1995). The persistent power of “race” in the cultural and political economy of racism. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 47-74.
28.
Heflinger, C.A., & Christens, B. (2006). Rural behavioral health services for children and adolescents: An ecological and community psychology analysis. Journal of Community Psychology, 34, 379-400.
29.
Horton, S. (2004). Land and rural New Mexico hispanic mistrust of federal programs: The unintended consequences of Medicaid eligibility rules . In A. Castro & M. Singer (Eds.), Unhealthy health policy: A critical anthropological examination (pp. 235-246). Lanham, MD : AltaMira Press.
30.
Jerrell, J. (1998). Effects of ethnic matching of young clients and mental health staff. Cultural Diversity andMental Health , 4, 297-302.
31.
Johnson, J.C. (1990). Selecting ethnographic informants. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
32.
Jones, R.K., & Luo, Y. (1999). The culture of poverty and African-American culture: An empirical assessment. Sociological Perspectives, 42, 439-458.
33.
Kleinman, A. (1981). Patients and healers in the context of culture . Berkeley: University of California Press.
34.
Kumanyika, S. (2003). Cultural appropriateness: Working our way toward a practicable framework. Health and Education Behavior, 30, 147-150.
35.
Leacock, E. (1971). The culture of poverty: A critique. New York: Simon and Schuster.
36.
Lewis, O. (1966). Culture of poverty. Scientific American, 215, 19-25.
Mohanty, C.T. (1988). Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Feminist Review, 30, 61-88.
39.
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. ( 2003). Achieving the promise: Transforming mental health care in America— Final report (DHHS Pub. No. SMA-03-3832). Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
40.
Ortega, A.N., & Alegría, M. (2002). Self reliance, mental health need, and the use of mental healthcare among island Puerto Ricans. Mental Health Services Research, 4(3), 131-140.
41.
Paredes, A. (1971). The United States, Mexico and machismo. Journal of the Folklore Institute, 8, 17-37.
42.
Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative evaluation research methods (3rd ed.). Newbury Park, CA. Sage.
43.
Pescosolido, A.P., & Boyer, C.A. (1999). How do people come to use mental health services? Current knowledge and changing perspectives. In A. Horwitz & T. Scheid (Eds.), A handbook for the study of mental health: Social context, theories and systems (pp. 392-411). New York: Cambridge University Press.
44.
Public Health Service Office of the Surgeon General. (2001). Mental health: Culture, race, and ethnicity—A supplement to mental health. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
45.
Quimby, E. (2006). Ethnography's role in assisting mental health research and clinical practice. Journal of Clinical Psychology , 62, 859-879.
46.
Raffaelli, M., Carlo, G., Carranza, M.A., & Gonzalez-Kruger, G.E. (2005). Understanding Latino children and adolescents in the mainstream: Placing culture at the center of developmental models. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 109, 23-32.
47.
Ramirez, S.Z., Wassef, A., Paniagua, F.A., Linskey, A.O., & O'Boyle, M. (1994). Perceptions of mental health providers concerning cultural factors of the evaluation of Hispanic children and adolescents. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 16, 28-42.
48.
Romney, A.K., Weller, S.C., & Batchelder, W.H. (1986). Culture as consensus: A theory of culture and informant accuracy. American Anthropologist , 88, 313-338.
49.
Santiago-Irizarry, V. (2001). Medicalizing ethnicity: The construction of Latino identity in a psychiatric setting. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
50.
Shaw, S.J. (2005). The politics of recognition in culturally appropriate care. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 19, 290-309.
51.
Trotter, R., Needle, R.H., Goosby, E., Bates, C., & Singer, M. (2001). A methodological model for rapid assessment, response, and evaluation: The RARE program in public health. Field Methods , 13, 137-159.
52.
Trujillo, M.L. (2006). A northern New Mexican “fix”: Shooting up and coming down in the greater Española Valley, New Mexico. Cultural Dynamics, 18, 89-112.
53.
Vega, W.A. (1990). Hispanic families in the 1980s: A decade of research . Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 1015-1024.
54.
Vega, W.A., Gil, A., & Kolody, B. (2002). What do we know about Latino drug use? Methodological evaluation of state databases. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 24, 395-408.
55.
Willging, C.E., Helitzer, D., & Thompson, J. (2006). “Sharing wisdom”: Lessons learned during the development of a diabetes prevention intervention for urban American Indian women. Evaluation and Program Planning, 29, 130-140.
56.
Willging, C.E., Salvador M., & Kano M. (2006). Unequal treatment: Mental health care for sexual and gender minority groups in a rural state. Psychiatric Services , 57, 867-870.
57.
Willging, C.E., Trujillo, M.L., & La Luz, W.A. (2004). Ethnography of drug use and barriers to care in the Española Valley of New Mexico. New Mexico Epidemiology Report, 5, 1-3.
