The quality of mental health research on Hispanic populations has not kept pace with the quantity, resulting in a poorly integrated body of scientific knowledge. A conceptual framework for clinical service research with Hispanic populations highlights specific goals and orientations, following a hypothetical five-step temporal sequence. Research in the first phase of the framework, the emergence of mental health problems, should seek to determine the true prevalence and incidence of mental distress among Hispanics in relation to etiology. Such research should call attention to the importance of the migration experience in creating strains for this population. In phase two, help seeking behavior, the Hispanic's uses of mental health facilities should be examined, focusing on the integration of Hispanic Americans into social organizations, acculturational barriers, and utlization rates. In phase three, evaluation, the assessment of Hispanic clients should focus on the effects of bilingualism and interview language, and the influence of ethnicity on evaluation and traditional assessment procedures. During the fourth phase, therapeutic modalities, the development and evaluation of culturally sensitive therapeutic modalities should be researched, emphasizing language barriers, psychocultural distance, bias, stereotyping, and expectations discrepancies. The fifth and final phase of the research should focus on post-treatment rehabilitation, specifically to identify those factors which enhance or suppress capacity to function. (BL)