!Consiguiendo ayuda!: A mental health outreach program for Latino college students.

摘要

This dissertation is, first, an evaluation of the mental health awareness and needs of Latino immigrant college students, and second, a Spanish mental health outreach program that can adequately address the specific mental health needs of Latino immigrants in the college context.Out of the 26.7 million U.S. residents who speak Spanish at home, approximately 12.5 million speak English "less than very well" (U.S. Census Bureau, 2002). Many of these residents enroll in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at local colleges. Most Latino college students are faced with unique mental health issues that can impede their acculturation and educational goals. As such, a mental health outreach program geared to Latino students was developed in order to assist them through their educational journey.In this study, interviews of Latino college students were conducted in order to understand views, needs, and awareness of mental health. The qualitative interviews were conducted in Spanish, utilizing a phenomenological method of inquiring. The researcher transcribed the interviews and translated them from Spanish to English, made conclusions about the specific needs of Latino college students and then created an itemized list of the specific requirements to be addressed in the mental health outreach program. Overall, the qualitative results showed that these particular Latino immigrant college students were aware of the characteristics of good mental health but unaware of the characteristics for poor mental health. The results also indicated that 70% of the students were unaware of the mental health services offered at their college. Finally, the majority of the students were willing to seek mental health services in their college, if these services were needed.A Spanish language mental health outreach program was developed to educate and inform Latino immigrant students about different mental health problems experienced in the college context, and about ways to access the free mental health services offered in their college. This program was designed to bridge the gap between mental health services and Latino immigrant college students. Recommendations for both summative and formative program evaluation were included.