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Essay On African American Mental Health

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MENTAL HEALTH: BLACK COMMUNITY Mental Health in the Black community has rapidly grown overtime. According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. (Mental Health American p. 3) Mental health disorder is popular in the Black community. Which can include: depression, ADHD and PTSD, which usually stem from either a violent past or background. (NAMI p. 3) Furthermore, Cultural Trauma probes the internal conflicts over the form and meaning of representation and culture in successive generations of black Americans after slavery. (Washington p.2). Black identity stemmed from cultural trauma during slavery. “African American” …show more content…

Although, studies of attitudes and beliefs specific to African American women are scarce, a recent qualitative study of African American women 's beliefs about depression found the women believed they were not susceptible to depression (Waite & Killian, 2008). They believed that an individual develops depression due to having a “weak mind, poor health, a troubled spirit, and lack of self-love” (Ward, Heidrich p. 189). The amount of resources to get help is low. African American women 's use of mental health services also may be influenced by barriers, including access (inaccessible location, transportation problems, lack of health insurance, and poverty), availability of services (few opportunities for group counseling and in-home services), social issues (lack of childcare), poor quality of care (limited access to culturally competent clinicians and case management), and cultural matching (few opportunities to work with racial and ethnic minority clinicians; Cristancho, Garces, Peters, & Mueller, 2008; Miranda et al., 2003; Tidwell,

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Black women specifically are judged by their unwavering strength and endurance through their pain and anger, we see these as the stereotypical “strong/independent black woman.” This stereotype is in every movie, like Tyler Perry’s like Diary of a Mad Black Woman, I Can Do Bad All by Myself, Why Did I Get Married

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As research shows, the quality of healthcare, from preconception through postpartum care could be an important factor in improving the well-being of Black mothers (Howell, 2018). Last, as mentioned in class, the social determinants of health are significant factors in Black Maternal health. In further detail, an article written by Crear-Perry, et al. goes into further detail about social needs and the five essentials: awareness, adjustment, assistance, alignment, and advocacy

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One last component includes socioeconomic status of Black individuals. Those with lower income and educational levels have poorer lifestyle choices than those of higher levels (Walker, 2012). A huge problem that contributes to negative overall health in Black Americans is a lack of adequate insurance. Those of lower economic status are less likely to have insurance, and therefore less likely to receive treatment for medical problems. Even when an individual has insurance, many private insurance plans have very high out-of-pocket expenses that may deter individuals from seeing a doctor or from following up a new prescription medication (Walker, 2012).

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I have always been fascinated on different variables that affect young minorities’ emotional, mental, and physical behaviors. I came across this scholarly Journal of Black Psychology in my Psychology of the African American Experience. This field is very important to me because it speak about the community that I connect with and mention that there are different psychological theories and methods that should be used to based on minorities and not a universal

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Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”

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American society has always placed the weight of boundaries on to women, more specifically black women. Black women have had to deal with the standards of the Eurocentric life and the fact that to them we are not able to live up to what they expect from an “average” woman. Black women have always been the “runt of the bunch”. They are disliked and criticized for their hair, body shape, pigment of their skin color and many more things that they cannot control. Being in a society that is so bent on discouraging them from embracing who they are, it is hard to lift themselves back up after being put down by everyone around them.

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When it comes to seeking mental health treatment there are many aspects that impact a person’s approach toward seeking health care, such as socioeconomic status, race, gender, and age. Not to mention, African Americans are more likely to be affected by mental illness due to the fact they tend to have less advantages than Whites. Additionally, African Americans already also tend to have negative attitudes toward seeking care, due to their doubt of White

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Battered black women bruise from the inside out. From growing up in a household where they could not speak unless spoken to, to having those same rules applied in their future intimate relationships, these womens’ silence holds much more than can be seen on the outside. When a person grows up in an abusive domestic environment, they are more likely to gravitate towards abusive relationships in their adult life. This is a toxic cycle that has been established, especially, in the Black community. Generally, in Black culture, it is not common for a person to express their inner feelings and disclose one’s difficult experiences, resulting in negative emotions such as sadness, depression, frustration, and anger to build up.

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Low-income single African American mothers of young children report higher levels of stress, more depressive symptoms, and are less likely to receive services than their White counterparts (Chazan-Cohen et al., 2009; Courtney & Barth, 1996). African American single mothers are also less likely to seek mental health services thus facing increased psychological distress and anxiety caused by the social and economic challenges they face on a daily basis (Davies, Avison, & McAlpine, 1997; Murry, Bynum, Brody, Willert, & Stephens,

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There are various community resources that are available to help promote mental health and wellness. If used appropriately, these resources will help the community in the African-American setup to identify the children and youth who are struggling with mental problems and help them cope and later overcome problems associated with mental

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