In Rochester, Minnesota, Carmen Garcia sits alongside people wrestling with anxiety and low moods—not as a doctor behind a desk, but as what she calls an "acompañante," a companion. This simple shift in language reflects a deeper reimagining of mental health support, one that's beginning to dissolve barriers that have long kept Hispanic and Latino communities from seeking help. The Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives (PEARLS) has discovered something critical: many in the Hispanic community don't turn to traditional clinics for mental health support. Instead, they need something that meets them where they are—with bilingual coaches, without judgment, and without assumptions that more medication is the answer.
The stigma surrounding mental health in Hispanic communities runs deep, rooted in cultural beliefs, family expectations, and past experiences with a healthcare system that hasn't always listened. PEARLS, operating across five southeast Minnesota counties, addresses this head-on by offering free mental health screening, eight to ten one-on-one sessions with a bilingual coach, and a personalized problem-solving plan. It's not about diagnosis or prescription pads. It's about listening, Garcia explains, and understanding the specific behaviors and external circumstances that shape someone's daily life.
The initiative launched as a pilot program last year, serving 25 people across Olmsted, Mower, Dodge, Waseca, and Steele counties. That modest number belies its significance. Laura Sutherland, the regional coordinator with the Southeast Minnesota Adult Mental Health Initiative (SE AMH), which funds the program, notes that the results were compelling enough to warrant expansion. "We were so pleased as a county and as a region with the results of that pilot. We were able to actually increase and expand the funding this year to be able to serve more folks," she said. The program is now reaching beyond that initial cohort, though precise numbers for this year's expansion haven't been released.
What makes PEARLS distinctive is its deliberate rejection of a one-size-fits-all approach. Rather than defaulting to clinical language and institutional settings, the program uses culturally resonant framing—the concept of an acompañante signals companionship, not hierarchy. Garcia describes the work plainly: "It's not about just getting another pill for people, but it's listening to them and seeing what the behaviors are that they deal with every day and other exterior components." This recognition that mental health exists within a web of daily circumstances—work stress, family relationships, economic pressures, social isolation—reflects a more honest understanding of what wellness requires.
The program arrives during Mental Health Awareness Month, a time when conversations about mental health typically intensify. Yet for many in the Hispanic community, such awareness campaigns have felt distant or irrelevant. PEARLS offers something tangible: free services, bilingual support, and the implicit promise that seeking help is an act of strength, not shame. As the program scales across these five counties, it's planting seeds for a broader cultural shift—one where mental health isn't whispered about in isolation, but addressed openly, alongside someone who's genuinely listening.