Latinos Shun Help for Mental Health Problems

MODESTO, Calif. -- When her sister Olga was diagnosed at age 13 with paranoid schizophrenia, Celedina Valenzuela, a life skills counselor at Turning Point in Modesto, wishes her sister could have received the help she needed much earlier in life and in the years that followed.

"The main problem was that my parents were in denial about my sister's mental health," said Valenzuela. "They refused to believe their daughter could have some sort of mental health illness; instead, they believed she had been 'embrujada' (bewitched by evil spirits)."

Her parents also believed in "curanderos," considered by many to be a type of shaman or medium capable of healing and getting rid of evil spirits. Other family members even took her to Chihuahua, Mexico, to seek this kind of help, said Valenzuela, despite her expressed forewarning that her sister was suffering from a mental illness, not a curse.

"The end result is that my sister Olga never received proper treatment for her mental illness -- though abnormalities were noticeable even in her early childhood years," said the counselor.

When Olga was a young child, there were some early signs that something was not right.

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