Abstract
In the United States, Latinos experience disparities in mental health services, such as access to care, quality of services as well as culturally and linguistically appropriate treatment. The use of Spanish-English bilingual mental health providers may be able to address the disparity of cultural and linguistic treatment. There is a high prevalence of occupational stress and professional burn out among mental health providers. However, there is little research about the impact of bilingualism and providing mental health services in Spanish on occupational stress for bilingual mental health providers. Six mental health providers in a Northern California outpatient mental health clinic were interviewed and asked about their experiences as a provider and occupational stress. The participants’ responses recorded, transcribed, coded and analyzed to reveal similarities and difference among monolingual and bilingual providers. The results revealed that monolingual and bilingual participants have a similar experience, however the bilingual participants reported experiencing occupational stress related to their bilingualism. Additionally, the results revealed that the participants, monolingual and bilingual, identify similar risk factors and protective factors of occupational stress for bilingual mental health providers. This study underlined the differences in experiences of occupational stress between bilingual and monolingual mental health providers in an outpatient mental health clinic. With the high prevalence of occupational stress and professional burn out among mental health providers, this study emphasizes the need to recognize and mitigate challenges faced by bilingual mental health providers.