With the coming of immigrants and refugees, the current demographic profile of the Province of Quebec has become increasingly multiethnic (MRCI, 2000). To facilitate adaptation and integration, the government has paid particular attention to promoting strategies aimed at access to social and medical services since 1980 (MSSS, 1998). Adaptation and integration can both be sources of stress and internal conflict that can weaken and render immigrants psychologically vulnerable. Immigrants from non-Western societies, coping with mental problems, often require a know-how unfamiliar to caregivers. Certain social caregivers have adopted the ethnopsychiatric approach, based on the difficulties arising from the therapeutic care of immigrants and inspired by the works of Nathan (1979). Ethnopsychiatry is an investigatory and in-depth exploration tool that clarifies the cultural dynamic of immigrants. Within this approach, intervention is composed of a set of theoretical and contextual elements, which explains its richness and complexity. Its framework is based on an intervention team composed of therapists from various cultural and training backgrounds, including social workers. The use of native language is desired to facilitate expression and understanding of the facts. The purpose of this article is to describe the approach used at Hopital Jean Talon, a pioneer in its application, and to enhance caregivers' sensitivity towards implementing appropriate strategies as well as developing techniques adapted to very specific situations.

immigrants Mental health Intervention team Cultural broker or ethnoclinical broker Ethnopsychiatry

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