RESEARCH QUESTIONS
* What are the patterns of both traditional and alternative mental health care utilization among various key immigrant groups in New York City?
* What are the belief systems about mental health care among immigrant groups, and to what extent do these beliefs serve as a facilitator or deterrent to their access and utilization of appropriate care?
* To what extent immigrants’ reliance on alternative healing systems complement, substitute or conflict with biomedical models of health care?
* What are the implications of findings for the development of policies and programs to assure the mental health of New York City’s immigrant populations in the coming decade?
LATINO HEALERS PROJECT
Between May 2004 and December 2006, an ethnographic team at the Hunter College’s Immigration and Health Initiative has been conducting fieldwork on the role of botanicas (religious-healing business) and Latino folk healers in providing services to the growing Latino population in New York City.
Rationale
Latinos or Hispanics are currently the largest minority group in the US, a vast population composed by first and second generation immigrants, many of whom bring their own healing beliefs and ethnomedical practices, and even keep them after decades of residence in the United States. Despite Latino immigrants’ rich variety of healing systems (ranging from ethnobotany to religious rituals), little research has been conducted on their reliance on alternative practices to address both physical and psychological symptoms, and the ways through which these practices are shared and combined with biomedicine.
This ethnographic project addresses these lacunae by focusing on the role of Latino healers as informal health providers to the growing number of Latino immigrants in NYC. The term Latino healers refers to practitioners of Latino origin (first and second generation) who practice folk and/or traditional healing practices as either their main occupational role, or as a secondary activity for which they receive either payment in money and/or other form of retribution (e.g., bartering).
Aims
The project is aimed at examining Latino healers’ roles as practitioners treating Latino immigrants in US, amidst the intersection of traditional healing systems with biomedicine, vis-à-vis the healers’ own paths as immigrants in NYC.
The project’s specific aims are the following:
* Latino healers’ therapeutic beliefs with regards to etiology, treatment, diagnosis and prognosis of physical and mental illness.
* Healers’ therapeutic eclecticism (diversity of therapies from diverse disciplines) including the ways through which folk healing beliefs and practices agree or counteract with biomedical ones.
* Healers’ assessment of the symptoms affecting their clientele the most, including culture-bound syndromes rooted in immigrants’ cultural belief systems (e.g., nervios and susto).
* Healers’ personal history and current activities, including their migratory experiences, their healing careers, and complementary occupations.
Current Activities
If interested in participating in our team's activities, please contact Dr. Anahí Viladrich via e-mail aviladri@hunter.cuny.edu or by phone: 212-481-5154
