Hablamos Español Florida Announces Partnership with Pan American Behavioral Health Services of Florida (press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 19, 2022

Contact:

Ericka Gómez-Tejeda | (407) 487-9225 | Ericka@hablamosespanolfl.org

Jackie Smith | (989) 576-1996| jsmith@poderlatinx.org

Hablamos Español Florida Announces Partnership with Pan American Behavioral Health Services of Florida 

ORLANDO - Today Hablamos Español Florida (HEF) announced their partnership with Pan American Behavioral Health Services of Florida to increase mental health and harm reduction services to all Hispanics and the immigrant community, regardless of insurance or status.  Florida has long maintained one of the lowest per capita mental health expenditures in the nation. According to the most recent available data, Florida ranks 49th for mental health funding in the United States. July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.

“Hablamos Español Florida is proud to be joined today by leaders of the Latino community and partnered organizations coming together to transform the way that mental health care works for our community, ” said Ericka Gómez-Tejeda, a Founding Co-Chair of Hablamos Español Florida. “Members of our community have been suffering due to the lack of accessibility to mental health and harm reduction services being made available to monolingual Spanish-speakers, this partnership will address that.”

“In my case I had a full-blown panic attack, nerves, stress, anxiety. Something that is hard to overcome… Everything is in English, and I don’t understand what they’re telling me, ” said Jaykarey Skerett, an impacted community member who was affected by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in 2020 in Puerto Rico.

“We know that there’s a stigma particularly in Black and brown communities for seeking mental health care services. But we should never treat illnesses from the neck down differently than illnesses from the neck up,” said Brendan Ramirez, CEO of Pan American Behavioral Health Services of Florida.

“For years, our state has forgotten about the needs of our Spanish-speaking monolingual communities,” said Nancy Batista, Field Director for Poder Latinx. Our community is being impacted by the need for resources such as the partnership between Hablamos Español Florida and Pan American Behavioral Health Services, but we shouldn’t have to only count on organizations such as this. We need our community to get out to vote in November and tell our elected officials that we need this care.”

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