How culture and poverty exclude people from care

Recently, the number of persons excluded from access to health/mental health services in the United States has drastically increased. In most cases, the excluded persons are ethnic minorities who belong primarily to poor and disadvantaged population subgroups. In this article, we examine the role of socioeconomic conditions and cultural factors as barriers to the appropriate access to quality health/mental health services among Hispanic populations residing in the United States. Additionally, we discuss and recommend a series of public policy measures geared to improving the access to health/mental health services for the poor and disadvantaged populations of this nation.