Martha Idalia Chew Sánchez, Ph.D.
As part of her thesis work, Ania spent the summer of 2025 conducting interviews with three different populations: migrants, descendants of migrants, and mental health professionals (e.g., counselors, social workers). The purpose of the project is to further our understanding of the heavily understudied mental health phenomena arising from the (im)migratory patterns from Latin American countries to the United States of America.
To understand the effects of acculturation difficulties, government policies, racism, and discrimination, some of the questions that worked as a guide in this project were: What are the characteristics of Latine mental health in the planning, traveling, and crossing of the border? What are the differences between Latine immigrants' mental health outcomes and those of other ethnic groups? What role does socio-economic status play in accessing mental health services? And what are some of the ways mental health practitioners and institutions can support these communities?
The special characteristic of the project is that it bases its approach on grounded theory. This approach enables interviews and questionnaires to serve as the foundation of the theory, grounded in participants' perceptions and experiences of their realities and professional journeys.