Today's program highlighted several stories — of both the well-known (my interview with Liberia President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf), and the not so well known (such as immigrants to the U.S. still hoping for a slice of the "American dream," despite the bad economy).

But we also talked about the availability of mental health services within immigrant communities. We were nudged on this issue by last week's fatal shooting incident in Binghamton, NY (click here to learn more about the shooting spree).

For this conversation we spoke with Courtney Prentis, of Catholic Charities Community Services in St. Louis, and Jane Delgado, a clinical psychologist who oversees the National Alliance for Hispanic Health.

You can listen to that conversation here.

If We Only Had The Time ...

After our on-air chat, Jane flagged a few more related points she wanted listeners to know (we simply ran out of time during the broadcast). I've pasted her notes below:

- In terms of mental health, speaking the language of the patient and understanding their culture, is essential to diagnosis and meaningful treatment. While in physical health you can look at an x-ray, or the results from blood tests to aid in diagnosis, in mental health language is key to every aspect of the encounter. Good intentions and empathy are not sufficient. It is, at the very least, malpractice to see a patient when you have no means of communicating with them in the language they speak.

- Mental wellness includes the absence of mental illness and the presence of character strengths and virtues. The latter are at the heart of the relatively new movement in "Positive Psychology."

- Cultural resonance means that a mental health care provider understand the culture in which they work, their own culture, as well as the cultural dynamics of the patient. Too often culture is taken for granted, as it is not an easily measured variable, and yet it is essential to meaningful treatment.

- We also know that there are individual differences in the metabolism of medications, which impact what is most effective at the individual level.

For more resources, you can also visit the Web site for Jane's group.

Until tomorrow ...