The mental health-seeking behavior of hispanic veterans

Abstract

Hispanic veterans, defined as veterans of Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Latin American descent, are an increasingly important segment of the general veteran population. They are experiencing a growth in population that roughly parallels the recent expansion of the Hispanic community as a whole, and most particularly its Mexican-American component. In fact, the October 16, 1978, issue of Time magazine, devoted to the Hispanic-American, estimated that Hispanics will soon number some 19,000,000 people by the early 1980s, constituting the largest single ethnic minority in the United States, surpassing even blacks. For some time it has been generally believed that veterans of Hispanic origin underutilize the health facilities operated by the Veterans Administration (VA)-or, alternately, that the VA underserves the Hispanic portion of its target population. Hispanic-Americans are thought to be particularly underserved in the area of mental health care. Because of this concern over the issue of underutilization, we sought to address the question of mental health-seeking behavior among Hispanic veterans in a more rigorous manner than had been attempted in the past. This study is based on a large survey undertaken in the Los Angeles area. While both physical and mental health data were collected, here we address ourselves primarily to the latter; i.e., the mental health-seeking behavior of Hispanic veterans.