The provision of high-quality health and mental health services to the
ethnic minority populations of the United States is a great concern f
or the helping professions. Access of ethnic minorities to the mental
health care system is limited by issues such as costs and insurance co
verage; patterns of service use; and sociocultural factors such as lev
el of acculturation, relationship between poverty and psychiatric illn
esses, and social class of origin. Both the health care industry as we
ll as federal and state governments face these challenges with perspec
tives that only a sound public policy can make more workable and adequ
ate to contemporary times. The role of service providers, the kinds of
professional services delivery, diagnostic practices, interactions be
tween primary care physicians and psychiatrists, the care of the chron
ically mentally ill individual, Medicaid and Medicare coverage, and ov
ercoming cultural and language barriers are some of the many parameter
s to be confronted when alleviating the economic and human costs of me
ntal health care to minorities.