By Angelica Jimenez–

Dr. Virginia Quiñonez’s office sits on the fourth floor of the Merchandise Mart and is adorned with brightly colored flowers, zarapes draped over the bookshelves, and a Diego Rivera painting framed on her wall. Quiñonez is petite compared to the stacks of notes on her desk and papers clipped to the bulletin board, but as she removes her glasses, her face is strong and determined.

Quiñonez has been the Clinical Counseling Department Chair and assistant professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology for over five years. Quiñonez is one of a small minority of bilingual and bi-cultural psychologists, where only around one percent of licensed psychologists identify as bilingual. But her work in creating a culturally competent curriculum is changing the landscape of Latino mental health services.

Even though the Latino population is one of the largest growing groups in the U.S., the availability of and access to culturally sensitive mental health services is severely lacking. Dr. Virginia Quiñonez has dedicated her career to providing quality mental health services to Latinos and is committed to closing the gap.

The need for quality and understanding mental health professionals is vital within the Latino community. Studies show that Latino youth suffer from anxiety, delinquency problems, depression, and drug use at a proportionally higher rate than do non-Latino white youth.

One out of 15 Latinos who suffer from depression is not able to get medical treatment due to financial, cultural or language barriers. Depression is dramatically higher in Latinas, where studies report that 46 percent of Latinas suffer from depression, compared to 19.6 percent of Latinos.

In many cases, Quiñonez said Latinas who do seek medical treatment complain of physical symptoms like ataque de nervios or empacho, which are actually emotional and physical. So, patients are often misdiagnosed or over-diagnosed.

Quiñonez said she had a calling, and her desire to learn about psychology started early.

“Psychology was always my passion since I was in junior high,” said Quiñonez. “I loved the word and the idea of finding out about what makes human tick, and what happens when things go wrong in our lives, and how we change that.”

Her journey started in West Texas, but she left for Chicago, after she finished college. For over 10 years, Quiñonez worked with survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault as an advocate and counselor. There Quiñonez witnessed the disparities in treatment for Latinas and other women of color.

“I distinctly remember one time when I was desperately looking for a psychiatrist who was bi-lingual, and I spent a week calling hospitals, domestic violence programs, and everybody I knew,” said Quiñonez. “I finally found one person-one person-in this big city of several million, and it took me a week to find this person.”

Quiñonez decided to return to school and received her license to practice as a mental health professional. While studying for her doctoral degree, she learned about multi-cultural training and applied that to her work.

While Quiñonez continues to practice, the majority of her work is devoted to higher education. In this capacity, she plays an integral role in incorporating the training she received to help students and mental health professionals to become culturally competent.

Quiñonez set out to ensure such a curriculum became a permanent part of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and approached the president about developing a Latino mental health center. Six months later, she received approval and saw her dream realized in the fall of 2008.

“It goes back to when I was in graduate school where I found out there were guidelines on multi-cultural education and practice,” said Quiñonez. “We developed a concentration within the masters program, hired full-time coordinator and have an actual center which provides direction for concentration and recruits students, services to the community, donations and translation services.”

The Latino Mental Health Center has nearly doubled its number of students from 10 in its first year to 17, Quiñonez said.

“There aren’t enough of us trained, the pipeline is clogged. How do we unclog the pipeline?” asked Quiñonez. “One way is through these types of centers to Latinos willing to become trained and want to work with the community.”

“We know that Latinos do not have access to mental health services in the same way majority of the population does,” said Quiñonez. “We know we are averse to accessing mental health because of social stigma, culturally discouraged to take the problems outside family and because we’re afraid of dealing with the systems, where documentation might be an issue.”

Dr. Nayeli Chavez, assistant professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, describes Quiñonez as very strong and independent minded. She said Quiñonez has been like a mentor to her since she was hired a year and a half ago.

“I was impressed by her commitment to the Latino community.” Chavez said.

Chavez attributes the diversity of the faculty to Quiñonez’s dedication and said that more than half the faculty is from underrepresented groups.

Quiñonez is not only dedicated to her work with Latino Mental Health Center but with assisting Latino students in achieving high education. She said that she knows how difficult it is because she grew up in a culture in which education was not seen as a way to pursue dreams or ambitions.

“I’m a first generation college student, and I had to do it all by myself,” said Quiñonez. “My parents had no idea of where to begin. For us, the culture of education was the way out of poverty.”

Quiñonez said she feels privileged to work with the future generation of mental health professionals and finds the experience humbling. She remains focused on her mission and the need to educate and help the Latino community.

“Mental health issues are often swept under the rug.” said Quiñonez. “It often gets forgotten, and we can’t forget it anymore.”

Dia Mason, faculty assistant at the Chicago School, is in the process of applying for doctorate programs and said Dr. Quiñonez is a mentor to her.

“Dr. Quiñonez is extremely understanding of the fact that as graduate students, we have so many things going on, and she is very helpful,” Mason said.

She has known Dr. Quiñonez for about a year and is surprised how approachable and generous she has been to her and other students.

“I’m shocked when she thanks us,” said Mason. “I want to be like that.”

Angelica Jimenez is a graduate journalism student at Columbia College Chicago.