Essential Recommendations and Strategies for Mental Health Administrators and Leadership to Develop and Sustain Pediatric Bilingual Mental Health Care Services.

Introduction

As the number of American children who speak a language other than English at home increases, so too does the need for bilingual mental health services. As the field of mental health works to establish and maintain bilingual care, several barriers must be addressed.Review: This paper reviews current challenges to the provision of bilingual care, such as the lack of bilingual clinicians and trainees and limited training for clinicians on collaboration with interpreters.Recommendations: Following a review, the paper identifies common barriers to bilingual care and recommendations for those in leadership or administrators to support effective program development and sustained growth. Recommendations are provided in three, tiered categories for mental health administrators and leaders to address, including (1) systemic prioritization of bilingual pediatric mental health services, (2) inclusion of highly-trained leaders specializing in bilingual pediatric care, and (3) support for clinicians and trainees to improve quality and accessibility of care. Special emphasis is given to recommendations on identifying specific language and cultural needs of target populations, working effectively and respectfully with interpreters, provision of resources to bilingual clinicians and leaders, and steps to take to increase and support diverse leadership specializing in bilingual pediatric mental health care.

Conclusion

This paper provides a summary and potential framework for those in leadership positions to recognize and address individual and systemic challenges that affect equitable provision of bilingual pediatric mental health care. Systemic leaders have an opportunity to use this framework as guidance towards acting in the best interests of culturally and linguistically diverse patients, family, and staff.