The Hispanic Clinic with Dr. Diaz
During National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15, 2022, we celebrate the achievements and contributions of Hispanic champions who have inspired others to succeed.
To start off, we want to highlight one of our own, Ailyn Diaz, MD, who has been a part of our team since 2015. Dr. Diaz is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute (PPI) as well as the Director of the Hispanic Clinic.
“The Hispanic Clinic is a specialty service where we can see patients in their native language with bicultural and bilingual therapists. Patients get to see someone with a cultural understanding of what they are going through” explains Dr. Diaz.
“Culturally and linguistically competent care is important. Hispanic women have higher rates of anxiety and the pandemic saw increased rates of suicide in Hispanics.” The relationship and communication between a person and their mental health provider is a key aspect of treatment. It’s important for a person to feel that their identity is understood by their provider to receive the best possible support and care.
The Hispanic Clinic delivers culturally competent psychiatric care and recovery-oriented services to patients in the Latino and Hispanic communities. It distinguishes itself from other PPI services in that all care is delivered/offered in the Spanish language by bicultural and bilingual psychiatrists and therapists. The Hispanic Clinic is inclusive of the Latino and Hispanic communities in Central Pennsylvania with a commitment to collaboration and empowerment through the identification of health disparities, stigma and structural influences.
Dr. Diaz further describes it: “Our clinic helps the Hispanic community with not only mental health and drug and alcohol recovery help and treatment, but also with other things like the ability to obtain services, navigate housing needs, and working with network of providers outside PPI for general treatment. We coordinate with the community, our parent organizations, internal programs, therapists and of course, our patients.”
When it comes to the founding of the Clinic, Dr. Diaz summarizes, “The Hispanic Clinic began in the 1980s by Dr. Montaner and Dr. Morales-Brandt when they were residents at Hershey Medical Center. They saw patients who spoke Spanish, and realized they needed to look at the aspect of culture in treatment. The location of clinic bounced around with the doctors until the Pinnacle Health (now UPMC) and Penn State Health merger in 2009, where it moved to its current location at PPI, where it remains though the founding physicians have either left or retired.”
Though the clinic’s parent organizations changed over the years, it continued to evolve, aiding a community in need, and providing success: “Through this clinic we have been able to help those who were homeless obtain and navigate the system to obtain housing and food, help those who have no insurance, help transgender people with no insurance cross the border in order to see a provider and provide charity care to those in need of specialty medical care” notes Dr. Diaz.
When asked of her goals, Dr. Diaz listed: “One of the great areas of need is a bilingual liaison to help community. I want to continue forming liaisons with community providers. I’d love to expand the clinic, expanding medical care is essential, however, we need a larger team with bicultural and bilingual providers.”
For more information on the Hispanic Clinic, visit our Hispanic Programs page, or call (717) 782-2120.