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Three empirical research-based chapters comprise this monograph. Each chapter attempts to analyze the problem addressed in such a manner that readers themselves may be induced to innovate solutions. The thrust of the monograph is to engage its audience in a collective positive spirit of innovation for the benefit of institutions that wish to better serve their clientele. The first chapter is an overview of existing health care delivery systems available to the Spanish speaking/surnamed population. Suggestions for innovations are at the level of organizational modifications for community mental health centers. The second chapter deals specifically with the instrumentation of personality assessment and the interpretation of its results. Suggestions for different ways of interpreting results when dealing with the target populations are made. Some directions for the development of more relevant tests are also suggested. The third chapter is concerned with the development of professional personnel and describes an empirical experiment on the ethnic characteristics of the therapists and the impact that such ethnic cues might have on their patients. Suggestions are made as to how best to proceed in the therapeutic relationship between patient and therapist. (Author/AM)

There is strong evidence of the inadequacy of existing therapeutic modalities for Spanish speaking clients. Intended to bring together new information on the psychotherapeutic approaches, techniques, and goals appropriate to the Spanish speaking, this monograph contains seven articles which attempt to study the multiplicity of variables involved in the development of effective mental health services to the Spanish speaking. Focusing on the process involved in developing specific therapeutic techniques demonstrating their possible usefulness in working with the Spanish speaking, the articles discuss: mental health service utilization by Mexican Americans; mental health services in East Los Angeles--an urban community case study; Mexican American dropouts in psychotherapy as related to level of acculturation; psychotherapist ethnicity and expertise as determinants of self-disclosure; applicability of a behavioral model in serving the mental health needs of the Mexican American; assertive training with low income Mexican American women; and behaviorally oriented group therapy--a successful application in the treatment of low income Spanish speaking clients. (NQ)

Presenting multi-ethnic views about the delivery of mental health services to the Hispanic population, this monograph contains 18 papers presented at the joint meeting of the Puerto Rican Medical Association's Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery Section, the Caribbean Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychiatric Association held in May 1976. The papers cover such topics as: the psychodynamics of prejudice; the evaluation and quality control of mental health services; the community mental health center in the central city--issues for administrators; clinical issues in the psychiatric treatment of Puerto Ricans; a community mental health program for Chicago's Spanish speaking people (8 years of evolution); psychiatric services to Puerto Rican patients in the Bronx; the importance of a community mental health center in a Spanish speaking community; diagnostic and prognostic surprises in Spanish American patients in Colorado; a separate complete program for Spanish speaking patients; the use of community workers in a Spanish speaking community; subtle bias in the treatment of the Spanish speaking; participation of Latinos and Blacks in outpatient services consumer surveys; day treatment of Hispanic adolescents involved with the courts; the language handicapped psychiatrist and patient in a bilingual situation; pharmacotherapy; voodoo, spiritualism and psychiatry; psychiatry and the criminal system; and the abused and neglected child. (NQ)