Introduction to Special Issue: Culturally Responsive School-Based Mental Health Interventions

Abstract

Practitioners and researchers continue to ask questions such as: "Could CLD populations respond equally to EBTs developed for mainstream populations?" "What cultural factors, if any, need to be addressed in order for our school-based interventions to be culturally and socially valid for CLD?" To this date, most existing evidence-based interventions have been developed with a mainstream population in mind, almost completely ignoring the impact culture, race, SES, and language proficiency could have on students' social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes (Castro Olivo 2010). Individuals with limited English language proficiency have been found to struggle more with mental health problems; as they are less likely to seek services (Bauer et al. 2010). [...]four papers describe the results of studies (ranging from case studies to mix-method approaches) that examined the effectiveness of culturally responsive mental health and consultation practices with diverse populations within school settings (Falcon & Mueller; Ijadi-Magsoodi, Marlotte, Garcia, Aralis, Lester & Kataoka; Castro-Villraeal & Rodriguez). In their article titled "Culturally Responsive Adaptations in Evidence-Based Treatments: The Impact on Client Satisfaction," Dr. Jones and colleagues report the results of a study where clients' satisfaction was found to increase more rapidly when they received services from clinicians who had been trained on Multicultural Counseling Competencies (MCCs) versus those who received services from clinicians who provided regular cognitive behavioral therapy.