Minorities less likely to seek mental health help; local therapists cite reasons, solutions
on August 9th, 2005 at 1:06 pmI found this article to be really interesting because the citings that are mentioned are reasons that I have noticed:
“She spoke to the issue of some populations tending to rely more on priests and preachers, and the idea of not going outside the family with problems.
The Surgeon General’s report did mention how African-Americans, for instance, are more likely to turn to churches, friends or family than psychiatrists for help  especially a white psychiatrist. It stated that about 25 percent of African-Americans are uninsured, but even those with adequate private coverage are less inclined to use mental health services and often wind up in emergency rooms because they delay treatment. Van Kirk also spoke of some ethnic groups being more inclined to “take care of yourself and your family.” She recommended clergy perhaps providing encouragement to those who come to them to seek professional help, or set up crisis centers at churches for this purpose. “Make it easy for them,” she said.” (more…)
I can’t tell you the number of times that I have seen mentally challenged people getting the devil cast out of them in some of the churches I have attended in the past (don’t get me started about the “in three days your son/daughter is going to be normal” stuff. Don’t worry, I’ll tackle that one another day).
As far as some of the other reasons go (cost of treatment and trust), those issues have been addressed in the past and need to continue to be addressed. Therapy ain’t cheap, and to have a doctor that is just using your child as a guinea pig for the latest treatments (in some cases) can be very intimidating.
The one thing that does concern me about the diagnoses of “mentally challenged” is that far too many young boys (especially Blacks and Hispanics) are given this verdict without thorough testing (look to ADHD to see those examples).
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