Characteristics of Hispanic-Serving Mental Health Organizations in the U.S.

Little is known about Hispanics' barriers to quality psychiatric care. Less is known about the characteristics of the organizations in which Hispanics do actually receive care. Using the 2014 National Mental Health Services Survey, this study explored the characteristics of mental health organizations that catered to Hispanic populations in the U.S. Latent class analysis showed that Hispanics were most likely to receive psychiatric care in organizations embedded in non-profit hospitals and community health centers specializing in providing mental health care. Although in September 2017 Congress extended the funding for community health centers for two more years, this was a short-term solution to the threat of losing federal funding in the near future. Our findings suggest that the defunding of community health centers would overwhelmingly affect Hispanics, further increasing systemic disparities on access to mental health care in the U.S.