Mental health roles of physicians in a Mexican-American community

Abstract

Family physicians who practice in a primarily Mexican-American community in Los Angeles were interviewed and answered questionnaires concerning their attitudes, opinions, and experiences in regard to mental illness and psychiatry. The results indicate that the physicians have a varied hut often high regard for psychiatry, a very diverse degree of sensitivity to and recognition of emotional disorders in office practice, and a desire in the majority for additional psychiatric education, consultation, and resources. Family physicians appear to serve as by far the most active and available mental health sustaining service in this particular low-income, ethnic community with its poverty of formal psychiatric facilities.