Mental Health Crisis in the African American Community Essay

As Americans it becomes natural to undermine those with a mental illness. As a fact, many adults and children deal with mental illness each and everyday. There are many stories that have been told to Americans about depression, anxiety, along with bipolar disorders, with the outcome usually being a negative consequence. For the 1 in every 5 citizens that deal with a mental illness each year. Americans have neglected the fact that many adults and children deal with mental issue(s), the citizens that refrain from getting help; their well being can suffer detrimental effects, there is not a lot of awareness either taught in school, or in public perspectives, American’s stigma has perfected their

Mental illness is and has always been a serious topic. But it has not always been taken as serious in the black community. From my research, scholars and medical professionals in the field of mental health spoke on the fact that mental illness is a stigma in the black community and the conversation of this is not happening. There are many factors that contributed to this. Factors such as the distrust of medical professionals, mis-diagnosis, socio-economical factors and so much more contribute to the reason the black community is missed when it comes to mental health. I also discovered the inside factors that were culture, religion, mis-education, and family reliance. This also becomes why it is a stigma or why it’s not talked about amongst everyone in the community.

There are so many services offered in Mental Health America I could go on and on. These services provide help for just about any cause and have trained highly professionals to meet our needs.

The internal wall that often keeps black men away from psychotherapy goes along with external barriers built just as high, if not higher. Mental health practitioners are overwhelmingly white, with the proportion of black psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychoanalysts estimated at less than three percent of the nation 's total. This would mean that even if black men were to break through the self-imposed barriers and seek professional help for mental issues, it may be difficult to find someone with whom they can build a rapport, and whom they feel can relate to them, and they can trust. This feeling of comfort is what allows a patient to reveal his most intimate secrets. As Dr. Richard Mouzon, a prominent black clinical psychologist puts it, "Many of us grow up feeling that it is dangerous to give up too much of yourself to the white man." There 's no denying that access to mental health care is restricted for Americans in general. In private health insurance policies and government medical assistance programs, psychotherapy is too often considered a luxury rather than a necessity. It has been said often times that the only people with a guaranteed

This article is a great article that relates to African Americans seeking mental health treatment at lower rates than whites. The article states that this disparity can be attributed to attitudes toward services, alternate coping, and differences in care. This article also illuminates biases in counseling.

The Diagnostic Statistical Manual is used to diagnosis persons that are getting assessed with mental health disorders. The manual contains criteria the clinician can use to diagnosis a client. If the client meets a certain number of markers then they are given a diagnosis of a particular disorder. But, what if it’s not that easy? For African Americans, there has been a history of getting misdiagnosis by clinicians which has led to some mistrust. The cultural differences between African Americans and their white clinicians can possibly lead to the misdiagnosis of the clients. An article on clinician race states, “African Americans are less likely to be diagnosed with mood disorders and more likely to be be diagnosed with schizophrenia” (Adebimpe, 1981; Neighbors, 1997). Within this review, we will explore research conducted by scholars that examine the relationships between the diagnoses of African Americans by White Clinicians.

A mental illness is one one of many different disorders or conditions that affect one's mood thinking and behavior. Approximately 1 in 5 U.S. adults reports suffering from some form of mental illness. ANd about 20% of us youth are affected by some type of mental illness in their life. African Americans are 20% more likely to report significant mental distress but less likely than white counterparts to seek mental health care. For black people mental illness is surrounded by a stigma of weakness and religious disconnect.

A survey was conducted by Sherrill L. Sellers (Miami University of Ohio), Harold W. Neighbors, (University of Michigan), and Vence L. Bonham (Michigan State University) in order to address the interaction between goal-oriented stress and overall well being in 399 college-educated African American associated with a historically black national fraternal organization all over the world. Mental health of African American male populations is poorly understood due to unique social, racial, and psychological variables. Although many black men deem success possible, a great number identify resistance to success in the form of prejudice, discrimination, and minimal opportunities in comparison with their white counterpart.

Forget all the stereotypes of mental illness. It has no face. It has no particular victim. Mental illness can affect an individual from any background and the black community is no exception. African Americans sometimes experience even more severe forms of mental health conditions because of unmet needs and barriers to treatment. According to the Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. That’s why UGA third year Majenneh Sengbe is taking action as the co-founder of her upcoming organization Black Minds Daily.

Per Vaterlaus, Skogrand, & Chaney (2015) studies have shown that African Americans reaching out for mental health services are perceived to be powerless or weak, and are often humiliated and feel embarrassed. In a study performed by (Ward, Wiltshire, Detry & Brown (2013) African Americans were found to be hesitant to confess any mental health problems and were more likely to cope using religious practices. In my opinion, African Americans are connected to

The lack of mental health care services for minorities is a long-standing problem in the United States. The first time the issue received attention was in 1985, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report that described serious health discrepancies that minority populations were enduring. In 1986, because of this report, the Office of Minority Health was formed to assist in the reduction of the health care shortages for

Historically, Black Americans have been reluctant to pursue mental health treatment. Bean (2007) details how cultural tensions, Black religiosity, gender role dynamics, and African American history with mental health has lead to current negative perceptions of counseling and psychological services in African American communities. Bean (2007) conducted this study by sampling 194 African American students of Tennessee State University and an additional 94 Black residents of a neighboring community of Nashville, TN. The author’s participants completed tests measuring Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI), Religious Orientation Scale (ROS), Gender Role Conflict Scale (GCRS) and Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale (ATSPPH). Ultimately, gender roles did significantly correlate to informing

When experiencing a mental illness, African Americans face obstacles “related to understanding the problem or situation and limitation in awareness of possible solutions, strategies remedies and resources” (Hines-Martin, Malone, Kim, & Brown-Piper, 2003). In a study by Hines-Martin (2003), participants verbalized that they did not think they were “crazy” and therefore did not need mental health services. In this instance participants showed a lack of knowledge about what mental health illness looks like. They identified mental illness as dichotomous states (Hines-Martin et al., 2003). A study by Mental Health America found similar results. In this study, a majority of African Americans surveyed believed that depression was a “health problem” and in some cases “normal” (MHA, 2012). Talking about mental illness is taboo for African Americans, and as a result they possess little knowledge about specific mental health problems or available treatments (Alvidrez et al., 2008). For African Americans, stigma serves as an impediment to problem recognition. Because they have a misconstrued idea of what mental illness is, they are less likely to contemplate that they have such problems. Alvidrez (2008) found that stigma prevented 65% of their survey respondents from contemplating that they had such problems. Because many African Americans are uninformed about what mental illness is and how it

Black mental health differs from White mental health. White people manage mental illness completely different than African Americans. For instance, the 2010 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report states that White people seek and receive treatment or therapy for mental health issues at twice the rate as African Americans.

Mental disorders are largely undertreated in America in general by all races and backgrounds and now there is more awareness of this public health need (Kohn-Wood & Hooper, 2014). In the past decade, disparities between whites and non-whites have increased, most notably between whites and Latinos and whites and blacks. There are numerous discussions on the possible explanations for this finding, a few being: limited access in the neighborhoods in which the population lives, socioeconomic status, treatment modality preference, and race/ethnic background of provider (Ault-Brutus & Alexis, 2012). SMIs that go untreated are highly contributed to the development of other serious health concerns like obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, COPD, and many more (De Hert et al., 2011).