Reinventing Mental Health for the Latinx Community

In recognition of July as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, Anise Health has partnered with key opinion leaders at the forefront of research, advocacy, and services for culturally-responsive mental health care. This interview represents the second of our three-part series intended to raise awareness about mental health across communities of color and share resources that support BIPOC mental health needs (see other blog posts in our series: Decolonizing Mental Health in the Black Community with The Fight Inside Society). Watch the full interview with Luis here and read below for highlights!

As we continue our conversations across communities of color, we had the privilege of speaking with Luis Emilio Suarez, founder of Sanarai. Sanarai is a mental health platform for the Latinx community providing subclinical services that include individual and couples emotional support sessions. At Sanarai, receiving specialized and personalized mental health care is a priority. Luis and his team make this happen by having availability outside of traditional working hours and ensuring that language is no longer a barrier to receiving culturally sensitive support. 

How did Sanarai begin? 

Just like many of us who burn out, Luis expressed: “I was stressed with the job. I began looking for options to get mental health support. I found myself struggling to find someone who could fit my schedule and someone I could speak Spanish with.” 

Luis is originally from Mexico City. He came to the United States for a Masters in Business Administration at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Here, he met his wife, and the two graduated together. After completing his MBA degree, Luis moved to Chicago and pursued a career in management consulting. Three years in, Luis began to feel the stress and burnout, especially as he juggled work and various life events/changes. “With Covid hitting and starting a new family, I was more serious about finding the mental health support that I needed and that’s where this idea came from; Sanarai. What we are building is a mental health platform that connects Latinx communities to mental health professionals in Latin America” to provide culturally sensitive emotional support in a way that the Latinx community can benefit from and that is in their own native tongue, the Spanish language. 

Tell us more about your Sanarai providers!

With Sanarai, you won’t have to worry about whether you are being heard or understood because of language or cultural differences. Sanarai has providers in Mexico and the United States. The team currently consists of 18 providers in Mexico and 4 from California. They speak both Spanish and English well and are culturally competent. Sanarai is hoping to expand their team by obtaining more providers from other states and countries. 

What are the dynamics surrounding mental health in the Latinx community? 

“There's a big stigma. But definitely riding the same wave as other groups, there are more people opening up and conversations are growing more than before.” As Luis pointed out, it’s common for people in the Latinx community to seek help within their families or religion before they seek or consider professional mental health support. “Those are the structures of support that are traditionally sought out first. That is changing; now you have Latinx celebrities like J Balvin talking about mental health and bringing these issues to the surface. More and more people are open to both seeking services and trying them out.”

What does culturally sensitive mental health care mean to you? 

“I think we can divide the issue into two things; the language and the cultural competence.” In terms of language, 5% of mental health professionals speak Spanish, while 13% of the population report speaking Spanish at home or as their primary language. “There is a mental health professionals shortage. There are bilingual folks, but there are also many people who don't speak English and just need to see someone who speaks Spanish. That’s when you need an interpreter or someone else in the room.” But that creates another problem in itself.  “Now it’s two people the client needs to open up to. This makes the exchange difficult for both the provider and the client” and requires the client to invest extra energy to be heard and understood. 

“Cultural competency is super important. You start from a baseline of understanding the person. Then, you move to understanding their culture, how one thinks, their unique situations that are common in certain cultures” such as boundary setting with parents. “Funny anecdotes that I’ve heard from doing this work is that a client says ‘I don't have to explain why my mom comes and stays with me for months, why we’re so respectful to our parents.’” With a culturally responsive mental health care provider, clients no longer have to invest extra effort into explaining the whys of their culture. Without this extra layer of cultural responsiveness and, subsequently, understanding of the client, receiving culturally sensitive and appropriate mental health care can be difficult. “It’s catering to specific needs; these needs are super important in terms of behavior or health. And I don't think they should be taken for granted. There are ways to meet these needs by thinking about what clients want,  providing better therapeutic services, and creating more effective outcomes.” 

What is your next goal/hope for the Latinx community and Sanarai? 

Luis hopes to “become better known for the Latinx community. We’re really mindful about branding, communication, being serious and professional, having the right providers, and giving people access to culturally sensitive mental health care. We want to become a resource for this community. The hope is to get more credibility and have clients see that credibility. We would like to be able to work across the acuity spectrum and hopefully bring in more providers from the U.S. as well as incorporate a holistic approach.”

Sanarai is a rare and unique resource for the Latinx community that we wholeheartedly support at Anise Health. This platform is mindful about the language barriers that prevent many from receiving culturally sensitive mental health care. Visit Sanarai to learn more about their services and their journey in making mental health services more accessible for the Latinx community.