Wednesday June 1st, 2016:11:30-12:15 symposium (Hall 11 Benadal):

ID 622: Transcultural Frameworks in Perinatal and Infant

mental health; Working with families from minorities,

economically deprived and immigrants.

Are there some best practices on working with families from minorities,
economically deprived and immigrants?
Are the best practices from one target group applicable to the others?
Why is it essential that families are understood from their perspective?
What is the important insight you gained from this symposium?

In this symposium, the first talk was given by Morales, under the title of:
"Working with Latino ..
She presented some postpartum depression statistics in U.S.:
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Overall latinos in U.S. estimated to be more than 57 million, more

than 16 % of the population (CDC, 2015).
High risk group for overall mental illnesses (NAMI, 2016).
Most of them do not usually seek mental health ttt (might seek it
elsewhere, consider it as a social taboo).
Fear of medication also exists.

Then she conveyed her personal experience through working with

immigrant Latino women:
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Mostly are catholic as religion, there no divorce belief, so very less

likely to use contraceptives.
They feel considerable guilt; do not usually ask for help, they are
unable to cope.
There is a traditional gender role (Machismo); women are to care for
the children, house and husband. They have little support if ever.
They suffer intimate partner violence, lack of family support,
language barrier to access care, lack of health services in home
language, lack of resources, inability to pay for services, social
isolation. They also suffer acculturation. They also suffer
somatization and "Immigrant Paradox".

Working with low income African-American families in the inner

city during the perinatal period.

In this talk, the African American families were observed through a

transcultural perspective, and discussed the risks of being a black
woman in during perinatal period and also the strengths as high
aspiration, role exchange (women support families if fathers are not
there), extended families and willingness to work.
Infants are expected to grow rapidly and become "tough', as they
develop ability to deal with difficult situations. They tend to be
resilient from very early on.
A very important point raised was that there was unequal treatment
within the health care system.

And in the symposium discussion, Professor . highlighted that:

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Certain parenting styles are more appropriate for some certain

cultures.
Flexibility to find what is good for who is a very important issue.
Interpretation of data has to be done by a highly skilled person.