Who Treats Minorities?

We studied the characteristics of psychological service providers who treat ethnic minority clients in a representative random sample of psychologists listed in the National Register of Health Service Providers (NR) in 1986. Ethnic minority providers saw more than twice the proportion of ethnic minority clients than did non-Latino White providers (24.0% and 11.7%, respectively). Providers with cognitive-behavioral clinical/theoretical orientations saw significantly more ethnic minority clients than did those with psychodynamic or other orientations. Providers with eclectic orientations saw significantly more ethnic minority clients than did those with psychodynamic orientations, but eclectic providers did not differ from any other provider orientation group. The results suggest that more ethnic minority providers are needed and that other providers need to increase their ethnic minority clientele.