Just the Facts

  • Queens’ diversity is unmatched--families are from more than 100 countries and collectively speak almost 170 languages (NY State Office of the State Comptroller, 2006).
     
  • Twenty percent of the 2.2 million Queens’ residents are children (U. S. Census Bureau, 2010).
  • Twenty-three percent of these children are living in single-parent households and 13% are living below the poverty line. Of children living in poverty, 39% are Latino and 25% are African American/Caribbean.
     
  • More than half of residents speak a language other than English at home; 23% of homes are Spanish speaking.
     
  • Children from economically-disadvantaged families of racial and ethnic diversity are the most likely to be exposed to violence and the associated negative mental health consequences, but are the least likely to get access to any mental health care, let alone evidence-based practices (Alvidrez, 1999; DHHS, 2001).
     
  • Although the Child HELP Partnership has worked diligently to close the gaps in mental health disparities, statistics show that a tiny percentage of traumatized Latino, African-American, and Caribbean families receive adequate mental health care.
     
  • Through our surveying of Queens community leaders, we have learned that service access is limited by three factors: (1) concrete barriers, such as transportation, lack of services in primary language, and need for childcare, (2) conceptual barriers, such as stigma and being unsure of the purpose of therapy, and (3) culturally-specific barriers, such asfamilismo (i.e., belief in putting family’s needs before one’s own).
     
  • Effective recruitment of multicultural families requires: use of bicultural/bilingual clinicians, community-based outreach campaigns; and collaborations with community-based organizations (Snowden, Masland, Ma, & Ciemens, 2006).