SESSION ABSTRACT- “Crossing Conceptual Borders: Issues in Latino Mental Health”

The Latino population is expected to grow to nearly a quarter of the total U.S. population by the year 2025. Latinos are not only extremely heterogeneous in sociodemographic and community characteristics; their mental health disorder rates and service use profiles tend to vary broadly across immigrant and U.S.-born Latino groups. This panel presents findings addressing the role of acculturation and context and how they relate to psychopathology and service use. We examine the potential pathways to illness as well as how certain groups of the Latino population, such as Latino elderly, demonstrate increased risk of psychiatric illness as compared to other minorities and non-Latino whites. The panel also presents new findings of how health preferences differ across minority groups. The four papers presented in this session will examine these different issues unique to Latino mental health using the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The titles of the proposed papers are: “Ethnic Minority Elderly and the Prevalence of Psychiatric Illnesses”, “Community Correlates of Access to Mental Health Services Among Latinos and Whites”, “Pathways and Correlates Connecting Exposure to the U.S. and Latino Mental Health” and “Do Health Preferences Vary Across Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations with Mental Health Disorders? An Exploratory Study.” Dr. Margarita Alegria (malegria@charesearch.org; (617) 503-8447) will moderate the session.