The California School of Professional Psychology and its community partner - escuela que ensena como practicar la psicologia sin conflicto con otras culturas - TA: school that teaches how to practice psychology without conflicting with other cultures

Hispanic Times Magazine, Dec, 1996

The clinic operates a children's unit, an adult outpatient program for adults with chronic mental illness, and a day treatment program for people in the process of recovering from breakdown. Often people in the latter group are coming out of institutions and need assistance in reintegrating back into the community.

Caballero stresses that culture is an overarching issue that comes into play in all cases.

"Hispanics are very family oriented," he says. "But it's a myth [the idea that they do not reach outside the family for help]. When they recognize that there is a problem, they are willing to reach out. The problem that arises is that often the services they need are not available to them in their language. Or, their values and beliefs are not understood by the professionals and service providers they see. What makes it worse are the generalizations that are made about Latinos. Even though we have many things in common, we're also very diverse," he says.

Caballero provided an example. One of the most important values in the Puerto Rican culture, he says, is respect of authority. So, if a physician, for instance, tells a Puerto Rican man, "I want you to take these medications and come back and see me in two weeks," the patient might leave with the medications, knowing full well he has no intention of taking them, but saying nothing about it to the doctor. When the man returns and is asked a direct question -- Did you take your medication -- he'll say, "No." If asked why: "I just didn't take them."

"The problematic issue is not really the medication," Caballero says. "In [the dominant] culture, the man would be labeled non-compliant. The issue culturally is that, the Puerto Rican person must not challenge an authority figure." Caballero suggests that the doctor is the one whose behavior needs to change. The doctor needs to say: "I'm going to prescribe these medications. If you don't agree with this, I want you to let me know." If the doctor (or authority figure) gives permission to disagree, the Puerto Rican patient can do so without "misbehaving."

Caballero enjoys being part of interns' professional development. "They're motivated," he says. "Their role here is to learn, so that is very much a part of their perspective. That kind of openness to learning is not necessarily something you find very widespread in the general population. And that's true even for people who are bilingual or bicultural/bilingual," he says.