The Impact Of Geography On Mental Health Service Use And Care

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 need to provide mental health services to culturally diverse clients has increased over the past couple of years due to the increase in racial and ethnic diversity in the United Sates. Consequently, there is a need for mental health professionals to offer effective interventions that address social issues that accompany racial and ethnic diversity (Constantine, Hage, Kindaichi, & Bryant, 2007). Research shows that efforts are being made to implement social justice advocacy strategies and interventions into counseling practices. This growing movement calls for counselors to be agents and advocates for social justice, oppression, and discrimination (Ratts & Hutchins, 2009). Social justice counseling approaches focus on empowering the individual by actively confronting injustices and inequalities that affects clients in their systemic frameworks (Pedersen, Lonner, Draguns, Trimble, & Rio, 2015).

Statistics state that mental illness is estimated to be higher in blacks than in whites. One of the contributing factors to why blacks aren’t being cared for when they have a mental illness is because of the stigma that mental illness doesn’t exist within the community. According to Plowden (2006), “ African American men often differ in their presentation of depression and are often misdiagnosed. African American men are at greater risk for depression, but they are less likely to participate in mental health care.” This is due to the

barriers may weigh into African-Americans and Hispanics cautiousness of mental health facilities. (Bailey et al., 2011).

Health care for mental illness is an issue in the African American community for Men, Women and Adolescents due to the underserving and lack of mental healthcare providers, the cultural stigma of having mental illness and

(2) Disparities between the health of persons with mental illness as compared with that of those without, or (3) disparities between populations with respect to mental health and the quality, accessibility, and outcomes of mental health care ( Safran, M. A., Mays Jr, R. A., Huang, L. N., et al.,2009). Elderly immigrants are among the nation’s most vulnerable minority groups due to their limited health literacy ( Cordaso, Asch, Franco, & Magione, 2009) and serious health disparities, with many experiencing significantly worse health outcomes as compared to other groups. The term elderly immigrants refers to individuals 65 years of age or older who were not born in the United States (Leach,

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

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

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).

Barriers in health care can lead to disparities in meeting health needs and receiving appropriate care, including preventive services and the prevention of unnecessary hospitalizations (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012). In their 2008 annual report, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lists several disparities’ in health care. They report that racial and ethnic minorities in the United States

My research of interest is to identify appropriate mental health approaches to the African American population. I am interested in examining how successful Afro-Centric approach to therapy would be for African American families who are dealing with mental health. Over the years of working in the mental health field, it seems that traditional counseling approaches are not practical with this population. Families are not trusting of the therapeutic relationships and there continues to be persistent issues regarding racial disparities and disproportionate service delivery in health care for African American youth and families. My objective is to determine if the Afro-Centric theory will improve mental health in the underserved communities

In a study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health (2003), researchers addressed mental health disparities between communities of color and the White community in several areas of health and well-being. Results indicated that although the amount of Asian Americans and African Americans students living in Greater Minnesota is relatively small, they reported much higher levels of several key risk behaviors than do their counterpart. More specifically, African Americans tend to score twice as worse as their White counterparts in most areas (sexual activity, fighting, emotional distress, smoking, drinking, family ties, activities, and etc.).

Across the country, a steady increase has been noted in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments for psychiatric complaints (Zun, 2014). Patients also attempt to use their primary care doctors to treat their mental illnesses. The mental health care options for these patients are extremely limited, especially for minority populations such as African Americans and Hispanics. One out of four adults in America suffers from some form of mental illness, yet only one out of three of those affected receives treatment (Safran, 2009). Furthermore, patients are routinely misdiagnosed, receive poor quality of care, receive care from providers who have no understanding of their cultures and values, or are not even able to receive care in the first place (Sanchez, 2012).

Culture/Diversity: According to Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, approximately 20% of African Americans are more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population (Census, 2016). This is due to exposure to violent environment and homelessness which can increase anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression etc., (Ward, 2013). African Americans are more likely to be victims of violent crime which are influenced by the risk for developing a mental health issue. Such as; Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The belief and stigma of mental health as a bad reflection on the African American family could be seen as a

Treatment access is limited further by uneven distribution of mental health provider within the United Stated whom is concentrated in the highly populated, rich, and city-based areas. Therefore, those living in lower income and /or areas away from cities areas are less likely to appropriate treatment (Hugo, Boshoff, Traut, Zungu-Dirwayi, & Stein, 2003).