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FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING MENTAL HEALTH DISPARITIES
Throughout this report, short vignettes, based on true stories or composites of stories shared, are included to highlight some of the serious issues that communities of color face in accessing and then in receiving mental health care that is understanding of, appropriate for, and responsive to their specific cultural and individual needs. The stories highlight not only the barriers that result from the design and capacity of the mainstream mental health system, but also the need to provide additional supports for cultural diversity and to create bridges between the culturally-traditional mental health services where many communities of color regularly go to meet their mental health needs.
A successful mental health system serves all of the diverse needs of different racial and ethnic communities and through providers who are linguistically and culturally-competent, as well as by working with culturally-traditional and specific services and providers from within the communities themselves to serve as bridges and cultural brokers.49 It must also find ways to integrate mainstream services with culturally-traditional and -specific services to address the mental health needs of communities of color within the broader context of their lives.
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