African American Mental Health Sociology

Less than ten percent of mental health cases in the African American community is reported to health center. However, that statistics does not cover the amount of people who suffer from these behind closed doors. There is a stigma place in the Black community, that if you seek or speak out about your mental Illness you are perceived as weak or less of a person. The question that have arose is where this stigma stemmed from. Through research, the most reoccurring explanation is that there is not enough mental health care centers in areas that black people are populated. However, no one talks about the Tuskegee experiments, and how this placed a distrust in the Black community for people in the health care field. This stigma prevents people

The American Psychological Association published an article that reports “However, these professionals lack training in the diagnoses and treatment of mental and behavioral health problems. Psychologists are better trained to identify mental illness and provide psychotherapy to treat disorders” (APA). This may be the reason the stigma is place because if people in these communities do not have access to it, they are just going to ignore the signs, and not bring the topic up in conversation. However, African Americans who do have access to these centers go and are not willingly to do what it takes to recover from their illness. In the article written by Inger E. Burnett- Zeigler, she reports, “They’ve reached a point where they’re willing to try therapy, but will not consider medication. Medication is for people who are “really crazy” and they believe they are “not there yet” (Zeigler). Burnett-Zeigler dispels that the reason why African Americans do receive help because they do not have access to centers. Therefore, there has to be multiple reasons for this stigma placed in these

Their research focused on Black men in that area, and how their body will react to syphilis. However, at the time there was no cure or treatment for the sexually transmitted disease. This study lasted for over 40 years and is now known as the Tuskegee Experiments. The stigma may have stemmed from these times were African Americans from this era in time. However, the mistreatment of African Americans did not when the study was over. In the article “African American Mental Health” posted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness asserts, “Historically, African Americans have been continue to be negatively affected by prejudice and discrimination in the health care system”. This statement can be related back to the Tuskegee experiments. They have been countless times when the medical field has given reason for there to be mistrust between them and African