The Handbook of Multicultural Mental Health, Second Edition, discusses the impact of cultural, ethnic, and racial variables for the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, service delivery, and development of skills for working with culturally diverse populations. Intended for the mental health practitioner, the book translates research findings into information to be applied in practice. The new edition contains more than 50% new material and includes contributions from established leaders in the field as well as voices from rising stars in the area. It recognizes diversity as extending beyond race and ethnicity to reflect characteristics or experiences related to gender, age, religion, disability, and socioeconomic status. Individuals are viewed as complex and shaped by different intersections and saliencies of multiple elements of diversity. Chapters have been wholly revised and updated, and new coverage includes indigenous approaches to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental and physical disorders; spirituality; the therapeutic needs of culturally diverse clients with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities; suicide among racial and ethnic groups; multicultural considerations for treatment of military personnel and multicultural curriculum and training. Foundations-overview of theory and models Specialized assessment in a multicultural context Assessing and treating four major culturally diverse groups in clinical settings Assessing and treating other culturally diverse groups in clinical settings Specific conditions/presenting problems in a cultural context Multicultural competence in clinical settings

Clinicians and mental health practitioners are regularly called upon to treat patients of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Not only do these patients differ from Anglos in culture and language, but also in customs, beliefs, values, and practices. Understanding these differences is vital to performing an accurate diagnosis/assessment of psychopathology as well as in determining an effective treatment regimen. This book provides vital information to clinicians worldwide in bettering their treatment of diverse populations. Each chapter identifies relevant cultural variables specific to each racial/ethnic group, along with ethnocultural measures and their relevant psychometric properties. Part 1 presents introductory material on the definition of mental illness and pathological behavior in differing cultures, epidemiological data on the prevalence of different disorders between differing population groups, culture specific beliefs (e.g. hexes), and the influence of culture on treatment. Part 2 discusses assessment issues including how specific measures (Rorschach, MMPI, etc.) are best interpreted with different population groups, and the existence and use of ethnocultural specific measures. Part 3 discusses assessment and treatment of specific population groups (e.g., Indians, Asians, Latinos, etc.).

Celebrating its 20th anniversary! The most internationally-cited resource in the arena of multicultural counseling, the Handbook of Multicultural Counseling by J. Manuel Casas, Lisa A. Suzuki, Charlene M. Alexander, and Margo A. Jackson is a resource for researchers, educators, practitioners, and students alike. Continuing to emphasize social justice, research, and application, the Fourth Edition of this best-seller features nearly 80 new contributors of diverse backgrounds, orientations, and levels of experience who provide fresh perspectives to every chapter. Completely updated, this classic text includes new chapters on prevailing social issues and covers the latest advances in theory, ethics, measurement, clinical practice, assessment, and more.

A major challenge for mental health professionals who seek to practice effectively in contemporary US society is the increasing cultural diversity of the population. This chapter examines the competencies required for effective mental health practice with culturally and linguistically diverse clients. It also explores curriculum development and training strategies for implementing these competencies that are crucial for preparing graduate students as well as professionals to respond to the challenges posed by the demographics in contemporary US society. The chapter proposes using the Cultural Competence Continuum as a tool for self-examination, and proposes an integrated etic–emic approach for addressing the domains of awareness, knowledge, and skills in cultural proficiency training.

"One of the most challenging tasks for multicultural researchers is finding psychometrically robust and practical measures. For years I have been waiting for one comprehensive source of empirically supported measures to help guide my work. Finally it has arrived! This Handbook of Multicultural Measures is the most complete and up-to-date compendium of promising instruments for research in all areas of cultural psychology. Graduate students and seasoned researchers who often spend weeks trying to locate appropriate measures for their research, will now identify the best measure for their study in one day, thanks to this complete and highly readable text." —Joseph G. Ponterotto, Fordham University Providing readers with cutting-edge details on multicultural instrumentation, theories, and research in the social, behavioral, and health-related fields, this Handbook offers extensive coverage of empirically-supported multicultural measurement instruments that span a wide variety of subject areas such as ethnic and racial identity, racism, disability, and gender roles. Readers learn how to differentiate among and identify appropriate research tools for a particular project. This Handbook provides clinical practitioners with a useful starting point in their search for multicultural assessment devices they can use with diverse clients to inform clinical treatment.

The chapter focuses on multicultural issues in the definition, epidemiology, diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of racially and ethnically diverse clients with intellectual disabilities (IDs). Prevalence rates of mental health problems for persons with IDs are significantly higher than their peers without IDs. Psychological assessment and treatment are especially complex with persons from culturally diverse groups with IDs. Despite the growing recognition of the importance of considering diversity issues, there is a paucity of appropriate assessment measures and methods, evidence-based interventions, and clinicians trained to address the mental health needs of racially and ethnically diverse people with IDs and related disabilities. Recommendations for future directions and research are discussed.

The highly subjective nature of illness and the frequent ambiguity in diagnosis, management, and treatment require patients and providers to frame illness experiences in terms of meaningful concepts and vocabularies. For physicians this framing is based on the language of science; for patients it is often based on cultural beliefs, practices, and local vocabularies of distress. The ambiguity inherent in the subjective experience of disease means that researchers and practitioners must be aware, not only of culturally bounded illnesses, but of the potential impact of culture on all aspects of the experience of illness. In this chapter we review a long tradition of research that illustrates the important role that culture plays in the subjective experience of illness, and we discuss the implications of culture for epidemiology, health services research, and medical practice.