“Salud” means a few different things in Spanish, and for Dr. Ricardo Camacho, it’s become a calling of togetherness and a way of breaking stigma around mental health.
“It means health, it means cheers. So cheers, Salud to healing the culture together is our way of saying this is how we talk about mental health,” he told NBC Chicago.
Salud Chicago is nonprofit mental health organization that aims to create a safe space, especially in the immigrant and Latino community, to talk about mental health and access care.
Camacho, a psychologist along with his wife Jazzine Acevedo, a nurse, began offering free mental health workshops and group sessions during the pandemic.
Their goal was simple: eliminate the barriers that so often stop people in the community from finding life-changing mental healthcare.
Camacho said those barriers are often cost, and proximity, but patients also face generational and cultural hurdles.
“You talk about having somebody that can speak your language, especially when it comes to immigrant mental health. I think that trust goes a long way because if they’re able to see us in their own neighborhood do this work, it allows them to see themselves regardless of where that care exists in the city,” he said.
Fast forward from the pandemic to 2025, and Operation Midway Blitz created another need. People were traumatized, he said, and also worried about large-scale events. That kept some people from reaching out.
“If people don’t feel safe coming to a community event, how do we approach that? We’ve created virtual events where people can join us online,” he said.
He and his team made house calls, and met community members where they were at. Sometimes that was in shared community spaces around Pilsen, and sometimes it was at someone’s home or business.
Salud doesn’t have a typical brick and mortar office. That’s something Camacho hopes changes next year. For now, they rely on local partnerships and free shared spaces.
“I think when you see our impact with the little to no funding that we have, you can only imagine what’s possible when we do,” he said.
From women’s healing socials called “juntas” led by female mental health experts, to men’s groups focused on grief, what Camacho noticed during these sessions was that people really needed to share their stories.
“I thought we’ll be lucky to have ten folks in the room,” he said of his first men’s grief session. “We did not have enough space for everyone that showed up.”
Talking about mental health struggles is new for many of Salud’s clients, especially for older generations. Camacho and his team are gently opening the door.
One way they’re doing so is by partnering with doctoral research students to explore how education – formal or otherwise – shapes the immigrant experience.
“We have a really high amount of newcomer youth and of caregivers who are accessing schools here and we don’t know a lot about what are their journeys,” said Loyola University student Andrea Hercules.
Hercules, a doctoral research student, is inspired by her owns parents experience coming from Mexico and El Salvador. On a visual “education map,” which was presented during Salud’s inaugural Gala last month, she starts to visualize how those journeys impacted her own relationship to education. Getting people talking about where and how they learned what they know is one way to help people express their stories, she said.
Saldu’s funding comes from small grants and local community donations, so that vital services remain free.
“If you could describe Salud in one sentence, it would be, we create spaces for us to share our stories,” Camacho said.
Salud Chicago’s next event is a Día de Muertos grief floral workshop on October 20th. An exact location is provided upon registration.
Hence then, the article about local organization says salud to stopping stigma surrounding mental health was published today ( ) and is available on NBC Chicago ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Local organization says ‘Salud' to stopping stigma surrounding mental health )
Also on site :
- Melania Trump’s Advisor Shades Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ After Box Office Bomb — Even Though ‘Melania’ Doc Also Flopped in Theaters
- ‘Chicago Med’ Boss Teases Explosive Hospital Power Struggle and Unrequited Love Coming in Season 12 (Exclusive)
- The Hunting Wives Renewed For Season 3 Ahead Of Season 2 Premiere On Netflix