Responding to the mental health needs of latino children and families through school-based services

This article highlights the value and utility of school-based mental health services in addressing the unmet mental health needs of Latino children and families in the United States. To better understand our nation’s rapidly growing Latino population, such critical factors as demographic characteristics, cultural values, and family structure are examined. Special attention is devoted to the daunting challenges and resultant trauma experienced by many of these children and families who have recently immigrated to this country from war-torn homelands in Central America. The mental health status of Latino children is addressed, along with various service delivery issues and psychotherapeutic modalities to facilitate their personal adjustment and social adaptation in a culturally sensitive manner. The article concludes with the presentation of an innovative school-based mental health program that offers a range of services of demonstrated effectiveness in aiding Latino children and their families. Specific strategies for replicating the program model in other culturally diverse settings are also discussed.