Editor’s Note: In our last post about multicultural competency, we explored the pitfalls that currently detract from our ability to deliver culturally salient, non-ethnocentric psychological services to clients, and how overcoming these pitfalls to provide such services can improve mental health in a broader sense.
Evidence has shown that our current forms of mental health treatment have been especially inadequate for ethnic minority populations, and finding interventions that are culturally competent has been an enduring significant challenge in the psychotherapy community. Nearly four decades ago, S. Sue and McKinney (1975) found that ethnic minorities tended to underutilize mental health services, compared to white individuals.