InstitutionalizingCuranderismoin Colorado’s Community Mental Health System

• Published in: Enduring Legacies p. 291
• Main Author: Ramon Del Castillo
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: University Press of Colorado 15.11.2010
• Subjects: Anthropology; Asian studies; Behavioral sciences; Biological sciences; Biology; Business; Business administration; Business management; Clergy; Communities; Community health clinics; Community mental health centers; Community mental health services; Ethnography; Ethnology; Healers; Healing; Health and wellness; Health care facilities; Health care industry; Health care services; Health sciences; Human societies; India studies; Indian culture; Interpersonal relations; Management philosophies; Mental health; Mental health services; Physiological processes; Physiology; Practical theology; Psychology; Religion; Respect; Retirement communities; Social groups; Social psychology; Sociology; South Asian studies; Spiritual leaders; Theology
• ISBN: 1607320495; 9781607320494

This chapter chronicles the accounts of three individuals involved in the process of institutionalizing curanderismo in Colorado’s community mental health system. Curanderismo is “a holistic approach to physical, psychosocial, and spiritual conditions used . . . by contemporary Chicanos despite the predominance of ‘modern medical science’ ” (Lucero 1981:1). Curanderos/as traditionally practice “underground,” outside of mainstream health and mental health systems. The implementation of curanderismo at Centro de las Familias, a unique specialty team later transformed into a specialty clinic under the auspices of Southwest Denver Community Mental Health Center, was an unprecedented introduction of a curandera into a publicly