Literature

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Organizations as social systems- Hispanics

The Hispanics are among the fastest growing populations of the minorities in the United States and already constitute a significant segment of the population in the areas such as the southwest of America (Crockett et al.). Despite the rising population of the Hispanics in Main Street, the mental problems of the Hispanics have been far from being solved. The main reason for the inference if the lack of the representation as well as no cases from the ethnic community has been so far reported, having an indication that the communities health needs are not being addressed in the right manner. The Hispanics are a minority group who tend to be conservative and have a poor seeking behavior that can be attributed to the lower socio-economic status. The community has below per income considering that it is an immigrant community on the American soil.

As it is well stipulated in the American population, every individual is entitled to proper healthcare regardless of the race. The Hispanic community has been left behind both in the socio-economic, political as well as the social structure and this has contributed to having the heaviest blow on the community (Delgado). Politically, the community has experienced a close to zero representation, and thus we can deduce that the community is inappropriately represented. It is not only the political representation that the community lacks but as in the healthcare sector including in the Main Street there is no representation. Taking into consideration that the community is an ethnic minority, we then have to infer that they don’t speak much of fluent English and thus might get stuck due to the language barrier. Again, the community of reference has its roots in the rural areas where there is almost no exposure to the health facilities and services as well. The inadequate representation of the community to the health committees have widened the gap day by day as the population of the Hispanics has continued to rise in the rural areas.

Socially, the community is more conservative and tend to seclude themselves; this makes it difficult for the outreach communities to reach them in the ground. The reason for being conservative may be attributed to their cultural aspects to which they don’t want to lose. Culturally, the community does not mix with the other communities, and this also tends to explain the health-seeking behaviors of the community of reference. It can, therefore, be deduced that if the health providers are not one of their own, we expect two or more things to happen. For one, the person may fail to get diagnosed due to the language barrier and therefore calling for an interpreter. The issue of the interpreter may also prove to be futile as the Main Street organization has no representative of the Hispanic community and making it worse, none of the board members speak the Hispanic language. The second aspect would be due to the incompatibility of the community to mingle and socialize with the other communities. The aspect of being conservative bar the community from barring the individuals from seeking for treatment as they prefer to be attended by one of their own due to their cultural demands (Larkey et al.)

Narrowing down the line, the Hispanic community is impoverished, taking the lowest class in the social structure. The issue of being the lowest in the social stratification raises some concern about the community’s ability to seek health services at a cost. The community has a lower income and thus may be torn in between seeking health care services and maintaining their families. The case may be much relevant especially if the services are offered at a cost. Distance is another issue that may have contributed to the low turnout of the Hispanic populations to the mental checkup facilities. The services being provided may not be close enough, and this discourages the members of the community from seeking any health services and not necessarily mental health care. It is not yet over to the community in the matter regarding their perspective on mental health conditions. It is possible that the Hispanic community believes that a mental condition may have resulted from a bad omen, a curse or even from witchcraft (Parks et al.). The belief therefore completely deviates from seeking medical services at the set institutions but rather prefer to go to the traditional healers who will try and restore the situation, and this leads to the conclusion as to why the Hispanic community has lowered health-seeking behavior compared to the other communities.

Taking into consideration of the above disparities and needs that retrain the community from accessing medical assistance, the health department in coordination with the social workers, therefore, have a lot of things to put in place to fix the situation. The first consideration to which the organization is expected to make include the recruitment of some of the members of the Hispanic community to work with them so that they can be used to draw the attention of the rest of the community members. We do expect that the recruitment might also not be easy as the community does not want to engage much to the outside world, and this calls for devotion and extra resources in luring them on their side.

In trying to sooth the members of the community to work with them, it means that they have to employ study groups that will be sent to the deep rural areas to where the community resides. The group needs to be specialized, trained as well as possess bilingual aspects such that they are capable of communicating effectively with the locals. The training calls for funds, to which will cater for the training process. After training, the team is to be dispatched to the communities, setting up camps to which they educate the members of the community about the issues related to mental conditions. The group at this point is entrusted to make awareness to the community, sensitizing them on the important issues as well as the need for medical treatment.

After creating awareness, the group is expected to recruit several members from the community to whom will act as representatives to the community communicating the necessary issues to them whenever the need arises. The chosen members are also required to undergo skills and training about handling mental health patients. The whole process requires a lot of money, and thus a good budget is needed. According to our budget, almost half of the money is expected to go to the training of the staff as well as creating awareness.

The next issue down the line, regards working through evidence, a sample of the population having the mental conditions are taken with the consent of the community to the institution for treatment. The sample is then returned to the community to assert the need for medical treatment and making the community believe that mental condition is not a curse nor is it a bad omen but a normal condition like the rest and requires medical attention. Another thing that the institution may do considering the Hispanic’s restrictive budget is to provide diagnosis and treatment services close to the population so that the community may not be required to travel for a long distance to seek the mental health treatment. The decision can be achieved through using mobile services such as camps where diagnoses are to take place and also doing referral services for patients who are greatly affected by the conditions to their main facility.

Taking into consideration that the community is not well off, the institution has input measures and policies that would aid in reducing the cost of mental treatment, to enable seeking treatment among the population specifically in this case for the mental health patients. As this is not a one day program, a continuous assessment program should be imitated to monitor the impact of the intervention measures put across. The program may take a lot of time from two to three months down the line in the training and recruitment of the staffs to aid in the health facility. The rest of the money in the budget will be used in the purchase of the required resources so that the program can be sustained. The budget is more limiting, taking into consideration that the intervention is an ongoing activity and that the recruits need to be paid allowances and salaries and this is the major challenge. Also more money and resources need to be directed to this program so that proper and adequate results are obtained. The government is required to form policies advocating for mental health treatment among the minority communities by making it accessible, available as well as affordable to the target community, and this will have the overall effect of improving the health-seeking behaviors of the communities such as the Hispanics. The social workers here also have to be included to the groups as they can help in manning the areas to which the populations are located and may help in the conducting of research aimed at health service improvement from the members of the community so that monitoring can be made easy.

Work Cited

Crockett, Lisa J., Gustavo Carlo, and Chelsie Temmen. “Ethnic and racial minority youth in the rural United States: An overview.” Rural ethnic minority youth and families in the United States. Springer, Cham, 2016. 1-12.

Delgado, Melvin. Social Work with Latinos: Social, Economic, Political, and Cultural Perspectives. Oxford University Press, 2017.

Larkey, Linda Kathryn, et al. “Hispanic cultural norms for health-seeking behaviors in the face of symptoms.” Health Education & Behavior 28.1 (2001): 65-80.

Parks, Fayth M., MARIA CECILIA Zea, and MICHAEL A. Mason. “Psychotherapy with Members of Latino/Latina Religious and Spiritual Traditions.” (2014).