Social Marketing Plan Paper

Marketing Plan Goals and Objectives: Ethical Perspective

The goal of my Social Marketing Plan is to educate the African American male population of the benefits of receiving mental health services when necessary/needed. Young African American males are not accessing the mental health services that they need to cope with the stressors that they deal with on a consistent basis. Specifically, in urban areas African American youth are subjected to living conditions with fewer resources, higher poverty rates, and hyper-violence. In fact, over 40% of urban youth have witness the stabbing or shooting of someone. These living conditions also make African American youth prone to be subjected to a lack of supervision, neglect, sexual abuse, and violence

Many youth and their families feel that they cannot trust the health care system does not understand them, their problems and do not care to do so. Although, this sentiment may not be altogether true, African American youth, in general, are often misdiagnosed by health care practitioners, are often labeled with more severe diagnosis, and are more heavily medicated than their white counterparts. African American males are more likely to be labeled as having a behavioral issue than a mental health disorder, such as depression. Therefore, the African American communities feeling cautious about the mental health institution may, in some ways, be valid (NASW, 2001; Xanthos, 2006; Ward,

The long- term impact of institutional racism has led to increased poverty and the limited resources in the communities that these adolescents are being raised in. The adults that surround these youth are ill-equipped to help themselves, which make it difficult for them to care for their children. Prior to the recent health care reforms only 1 in 4 African Americans were insured. Therefore, much of the health care that they received was limited, because they could not afford general, let alone, specialized care (NAMI, 2004; Ward, 2013; Xanthos, 2006). Even with the new health care policies, however, it will take time to get the African American community to trust and be willing to entrust the care of their children to mental health practitioners. People of color, particularly African Americans, are highly underrepresented in the field in the United States; they make up only 2% of psychiatrist, 2% of psychologist, and 4% of social workers (NAMI, 2004; Xanthos, 2006). This disparity can prove very costly when seeking mental health treatment for adolescent African American boys because non-African healthcare, unfamiliar with their culture, often believe racial stereotype about these young men. While they may not consciously be attempting to harm the young men these biases do play a role in the diagnosis