Jul 18 2011
Detroit Free Press: Minorities Lag In Mental Health Treatment, But Some Are Working To Change That
Summer Blast, held July 9, addressed a key challenge — getting minorities to seek treatment for mental illness. So important is the issue that in 2008 the U.S. House of Representatives designated July as National Minority Mental Health Month, thanks in part to the efforts of author Bebe Moore Campbell, an advocate for greater mental health awareness among minority communities. Minorities face many obstacles to seeking treatment for mental health issues, including concerns about costs, transportation, lack of familiarity with available resources and language barriers. But one of the most significant appears to be cultural stigmas against admitting and getting help for mental illness (Spratling, 7/16).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |