Abstract
Cultural factors continue to be unstudied by researchers creating a cultural gap between mental health professionals and the Latino clients they serve. This descriptive-qualitative content analysis study examines, from a mental health professional perception, the influence cultural factors have in the utilization of mental health services among Latinos. After interviewing ten participants from a snowball sampling design, three themes emerged: 1) education, with reference to cultural awareness and acculturation; 2) means Latinos use to cope with mental health issues, which include privacy, religion and substance abuse; and 3) accommodations for better services, which center around bilingual services and staff and cultural knowledge; linguistic and culturally appropriate interpreters; and implementation of different therapeutic interventions/strategies. Implications for social work practice and policy and the need for future research are discussed.