Wyandotte Health Foundation Addresses Growing Demand for Bilingual Services
Mental Health Counseling for Spanish-speaking Individuals Expanded
Wyandotte Health Foundation Helps TFC Expand Service to Spanish-speaking Clients
For individuals struggling to cope with trauma – and other challenges like depression, anxiety, poverty, and discrimination – access to quality mental health treatment is critical. Unfortunately, access to mental health services is limited, especially, for low-income individuals and families who have experienced trauma.
These limitations are even greater for our community’s Spanish-speakers. According to the latest census, the fastest growing ethnic group in the Kansas City metro is Latino/Hispanic — accounting for 15,000 of Kansas City’s 18,000 new residents. Over the past few years, The Family Conservancy’s (TFC) mental health team has seen this growth reflected in a growing waitlist for Spanish-speaking clients in need of therapy.
TFC has made a commitment to meeting the growing demand of the Spanish-speaking community — steadily growing the mental health services to the Kansas City Metro’s Latino population, available through our bilingual Wyandotte County clinical office. In 2018, Latino individuals and families accounted for 61 percent of the total clients served by TFC therapists.
With support from the Wyandotte Health Foundation, leveraged with other local grant dollars, TFC’s mental health team has expand by one full-time, bilingual therapist. TFC now employs four bilingual therapists, all of whom speak Spanish and English.