The importance of family involvement in psychosocial interventions for persons with serious mental illnesses continues to gain empirical support. However, even as ethnic minority cultures are known to be more family-centered in comparison to Euro-American cultures, only a few studies focus on family context or on family treatment approaches for Mexicans. The focus of this paper is on mental health practice with Mexican immigrant families dealing with serious mental illness. We review available research on treatment issues and the sociocultural context that has relevance to serious mental illness within the family. Practice implications for increasing the cultural relevance of community based mental health services for this population are addressed. Several treatment strategies are delineated for practitioners confronted with clinical, social, and ethnocultural complexities when serving Mexican immigrant families dealing with serious mental illnesses. © 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hispanic Family caregiving Cultural relevance schizophrenia Ethnic minority services

ethnic group World immigrant Western Hemisphere health care United States mental health North America cultural identity