AUSTIN, Texas — Mental health remains a stigma in society, and especially in cultures where it is often pushed to the side or frowned upon.
According to census data, there is "an increase in poor mental health" within the Hispanic community. Because of that organizations and City leaders introduced a toolkit to break that barrier.
"Pathways to Mental Health" is an interactive, bilingual packet launched in partnership with NAMI Central Texas and the Community Advancement Network (CAN) to provide information and resources to everyone, especially the Latino community.
Austin City Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes, who also chairs CAN, understands all too well how mental health is considered a cultural taboo.
"As a Latina, certainly, you know, growing up, mental health was definitely not talked about," Fuentes said. "It was certainly like, 'Oh, it's all in your head. It's not a real thing. Toughen up.' What we're doing is saying to our Latino community in particular is like, no, it's ok for us to talk about it."
The toolkit asks questions and explains mental health. It also provides resources and information surrounding the stigma behind it in several communities. Fuentes hopes people can have conversations and normalize the topic by doing so with family, friends and even colleagues.
"We know that it has gotten worse and that we need to talk about it more as a community," Fuentes said. "The more we understand that this is a common struggle that many of us are dealing with, that the more empathetic we can be towards one another."
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), more than half of Hispanics ages 18 to 25 who have a serious mental illness may not get treatment.
U.S. Census data shows there are more than 434,000 Spanish speakers in the Austin-Round Rock region.
KVUE reached out to NAMI about launching the new resource for both English and Spanish speakers and received the following statement:
“We are extremely proud of our work and contribution to the mental health toolkit and it was a pleasure collaborating with CAN. This is such an important endeavor because there is such a stigma when it comes to mental health in the Latino community. It’s important to have open conversations and make it easier for folks to not feel alone and know there are resources there to help them.”