Latino Mental Health Campaign

The Mental Health Association has launched the third and final phase of its targeted mental health campaigns. The first two phases focused alternately on senior citizens and African Americans. On September 1st, the agency officially launched The Latino Mental Health Awareness Campaign with help from the Moses Cone/Wesley Long Health Foundation. (The campaign recently received additional funding from the Kathleen and Joseph Bryan Foundation through United Way.)

This new initiative will bring much-needed attention to a community in which language, documentation concerns and stigma about mental health issues often create huge barriers to seeking help and accessing services. By collaborating with concerned providers and creating a base of bilingual volunteers, the campaign will increase awareness and understanding of the importance of mental health and will begin to open doors to culturally-sensitive resources and services for the Spanish-speaking community.

	Heighten awareness of mental health issues and treatment options
	Increase collaboration among all agencies serving the Latino community
	Improve access to (and develop more) services that will support mental health for this population

Do you know people who are bilingual or who have an interest in our immigrant population who would like to participate in this new outreach? Or, do you know someone whose primary language is Spanish who might benefit from our referral and advocacy resources? Contact the full-time bilingual campaign coordinator, Kristina Johnson at 336-373-1402 or kjohnson@mhag.org


Creative Offerings
The daughter of Latino Campaign volunteer, Andrés Mosquera, contributed the following poem. In it, she describes the struggles and gifts of living between two cultures, a bilingual Colombian teenager in the American public school system.

Characteristics
By Sofia Mosquera

Alone she races down the page
with a pencil in her hand.
Away she goes with all her thoughts
to an undiscovered land.

From all the dangers in her path
she tries to run away.
Many friend ships she has left
but will meet again someday.

Creative as a butterfly
away she flies on by.
Trying to discover
all the secrets of the sky.

Two languages she can speak.
Her world is twice as wide.
She’s from a different country.
It’s a pride she can not hide.

Music always moves her heart.
Singing is her passion.
All types of melodies she can like.
They fill her with compassion.

She loves the soothing midnight sky
and every shooting star.
She wonders deeply why they are
so close but yet so far.
(2006)

Sofia is a Colombian teen who has lived in the United States with her family for many years and is fully bilingual. Her family first lived in Florida and then in New Orleans. They came to Greensboro as Hurricane Katrina evacuees in 2005. Her mother, Maria Fernanda, teaches Spanish at the Spanish Immersion magnet school, Jones Elementary.

¡MHAG ha lanzado una nueva Campaña Latina para el Conocimiento de la Salud Mental!

Para información y recursos immediatos:

Servicios al Cliente 24 Horas al Día en español: Marque el 211 de su teléfono (no celular)

Línea Telefónica de Crísis: 24 Horas al día en español: 1-800-273-TALK
(= 1-800-273-8255)
(marque el 2 para el español)

Kristina Johnson
Coordinator of the Latino Mental Health Awareness Campaign
Coordinadora de la Campaña Latina del Conocimiento de Salud Mental
Mental Health Association in Greensboro
330 South Greene St. Suite B12
Greensboro, NC 27401
Tel: 336-373-1402
Fax: 336-273-4474
email: kjohnson@mhag.org