A new
guidebook and DVD for African Americans with mental health concerns provides
educational material while addressing the still-pervasive stigma that often
keeps people from seeking treatment.
While emotional strength and
determination have enabled many members of the black community to overcome
great adversity throughout history, African Americans are still just as likely
to suffer from a mental illness as white Americans.
This is
just one of the facts highlighted in Mental Health: A Guide for
African Americans and Their Families, a new free public-education
tool developed by APA in partnership with the African Methodist Episcopal
Church.
Composed
of a 35-page guidebook and a DVD, the culturally tailored consumer-oriented
program focuses on the unique experience of a community in which racism,
discrimination, poverty, and lack of health insurance may limit access to
effective mental health treatment.
The
guidebook notes, for example, that African Americans are more likely than those
of other races or ethnicities to visit a health care clinician with complaints
of physical symptoms that are actually the manifestation of an untreated mental
illness.
And
negative associations with mental illness may also pose a barrier to members of
the black community seeking mental health care, according to the guidebook,
with one study finding that African Americans are much less willing than white
Americans to take medication for a mental illness.
“The
stigma is real in the African-American community when it comes to mental
illness,” says former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., now
director of the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of
Medicine, in the guidebook’s 22-minute companion DVD. “The good news is that we
now know so much more about mental illness than we did before.”
Also
providing commentary on the DVD about the different types of mental illness and
how best to treat them are Tracee Burroughs, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, and Michael Torres, M.D.,
medical director of Universal Counseling Services Inc. in Baltimore and
president of the Center for the Integration of Spirituality and Mental Health.
In
addition, the DVD features several African Americans speaking about their
experiences with depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic
stress disorder.
The
guidebook and DVD also highlight the role that spirituality and “pastoral
counseling” often play in providing additional support to members of the black
community who are dealing with mental illness.
“APA
looks forward to disseminating widely this valuable resource to help reduce the
stigma surrounding mental illness in the black community and to encourage
treatment-seeking and a recovery-oriented approach to psychiatric care among
African Americans with mental health needs,” said Annelle Primm, M.D., M.P.H.,
director of APA’s Office of Minority and National Affairs.
“Mental
Health: A Guide for African Americans and Their Families” is available via
e-mail at apa@psych.org or
by phone at (888) 357-7924. The guidebook and a video of the DVD content are
also available for download on APA’s Web site atwww.psychiatry.org/practice/professional-interests/diversityomna/diversity-resources/----mental-health--a-guide-for-african-americans-and-their-families.
