Towards Culturally Competent Design: A Mulitistakeholder Study of the Adoption and Use of Teletherapy within the Hispanic Community

There has been a call to develop more culturally sensitive designs for mental health technologies to ensure that the needs of diverse communities are met. We conducted an interview study with multiple stakeholders—clients from the Hispanic community (N=10), mental health therapists (N=10), and technology designers (N=5)—to identify benefits and challenges of accessing and using teletherapy for the Hispanic community. We identified four use and access barriers: connectivity and digital literacy barriers, safety barriers, technology exploitation barriers, and cultural and language barriers. We then discuss how these barriers could be addressed by using five elements derived from culturally competent frameworks from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the American Psychological Association (APA). We offer design guidelines for developing culturally sensitive technologies based on each of the five elements of culturally competent mental health technologies.