Ysabel Garcia brings cultural experiences to training
When we talk about minority groups being under-served in mental health care, the focus tends to be on problems of limited access, a lack of diversity among providers or stigma around seeking care. What is mentioned less frequently, however, is the issue of the quality of the care received.
According to a KFF/CNN survey published in May, people of color receive mental health care at lower rates than white people and report more unfair treatment by health care providers.
For Ysabel Garcia, MPH, first-hand experience in the U.S. mental health care system and how it treats people from other cultures set her on a path to affect the type of change she wishes she had received.
After her family immigrated from the Dominican Republic when she was a teenager, Garcia sought help for suicidality, but was treated to isolation, coercion, and a sense of being “kept alive” rather than helped to heal.
Garcia found herself dealing with a system she felt was not designed to provide the type of support any young person would need, never mind one who is also being introduced to a new culture.
“I went through a lot of traumatic experiences as a teenager, involvement with the police, involuntary hospitalization, solitary confinement, and physical restraint because I would express that I have suicidal thoughts,” said Garcia. “I was expecting compassion and understanding from mental health professionals…but I got control, dominance, superiority. Those were my first two years in a new country.”
In 2020, armed with a master’s degree in public health, she founded a training consultancy business, Estoy Aqui, LLC, with a goal of changing a system that let her down.
Garcia earned a bachelor’s degree in child psychology, she said, because she wanted to be the therapist she did not have.
“As I went through the program, I didn’t see any of my experiences or issues represented in any of the classes. If they are not being exposed to the information, how in the world are they even going to apply it once they are exposed to it outside of school?”
Through Estoy Aqui, Garcia offers workshops and presentations on social and cultural issues, racial justice, suicide prevention, creation of support networks and improvement of equity in the workplace.
“A lot of people are realizing that the approach they’re using is not working or that, honestly, is just not culturally relevant,” she said.
Garcia has presented to several hundred mental health professionals in the past four years. The feedback has been positive, she said, with several organizations hosting annual workshops for their staff.
Her most `popular’ workshop is on suicide prevention. “The training is different in the sense that we look at suicidality from a social justice lens, not just a clinical lens. Based on the hundreds of dialogues that I have had with clinicians, they tell me that they have never heard of this framework before.”
The trainings include practical applications, featuring a set of “culturally-relevant, justice-based questions” for clinicians to ask clients that go beyond risk assessment and safety planning.
In the future, Garcia’s plan is to broaden her reach with remote learning options, coaching and mentoring. She hopes to publish a book that will present her methods to a wider audience, which she feels is key to changing the system.
“When I look at how many people have been through all of this,” she said, “I’m like, `something is not working.’ These are human rights violations. There is a reason why so many people do not access therapy. It’s not just about the stigma.”