About this Resource: 

     Over the past couple of years much has been said about immigrants, refugees and those persons seeking asylum in the United States, but very little has been shared about the behavioral health needs of this population arriving in the United States during the most polarized political period in recent history. Most of them are escaping horrors of war, gangs, death, poverty and persecution and in need of behavioral health treatment and supports. After a major decline in immigrant families entering the United States during the previous administration, we are beginning to see the number of immigrants coming into the country increase and continue to deal with the reunification of unaccompanied minors. All of these issues call for specific tools to address the behavioral health needs of immigrants and many organizations are not equipped to do so. In this presentation, Pierluigi Mancini, PhD, addresses the immigrant culture and language and presents strategies to provide access and eliminate health disparities in mental health services.

About the Presenter: 

Pierluigi Mancini, PhD: With over 30 years of experience in culturally and linguistically responsive behavioral health treatment and prevention, Dr. Pierluigi Mancini is one of the most sought after national and international consultants and speakers on the subject of mental health and addiction. His areas of expertise are cultural and linguistic competence, immigrant behavioral health and health disparities.

Dr. Mancini founded Georgia’s only Latino behavioral health program in 1999 to serve the immigrant population by providing cultural and linguistically appropriate mental health and addiction treatment and prevention services in English, Spanish and Portuguese. He recently led a project to train clinicians in Latin America who are taking care of the over 4 million displaced Venezuelans arriving in Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, Brazil, Panamá and other countries.