Like many women throughout Connecticut, Isabella Vasquez of New Britain has missed or postponed health care appointments due to the pandemic. For the 23-year-old house cleaner, postponing medical appointments became necessary when the COVID-19 crisis-affected childcare for her 2-year-old son. “I would have to not go to my appointments sometimes because I didn’t have childcare,” she said. “When COVID struck, that’s when daycare became less reliable.” If her son sneezed or had a runny nose, daycare would not accept him, Vasquez explained. More women than men have either missed medical appointments or postponed the care they thought they needed during the height of the pandemic, according to a DataHaven survey released in October of more than 5,000 randomly selected state residents. The 2021 Community Wellbeing Survey found that 12% of women didn’t get the health care they needed in the last year, compared to 10% of men. Similarly, 34% of women [...]

The Latinx community is one of the most diverse in the United States. The American cultural melting pot has always included those who are of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, and South American descent. Unfortunately, these communities do not always have access to the mental health care that they deserve. It is time to learn more about how these barriers can be broken so that all communities have the same access to mental health assistance. There is no race or ethnicity that will find themselves immune from mental health issues. They significantly affect all walks of life, at all times. The statistics that have been compiled about the sheer number of Latinx community members who are currently suffering from mental illness are sobering. Over 18% of the US population is estimated to be Latinx or Hispanic. Of this population, 16% have reported having mental illnesses within the past [...]