Minorities Mental Health Issues

The evolution of mental health treatment in America has been a long and arduous road with many ups and downs. In many ways, attitudes towards the disease towards mental illness help shape the evolution of treatment. In addition, trends in treatment and cultural understanding of mental illness influence national policy. In Mad in American author Robert Whitaker discusses the mental health care system its history, evolution, and the current state of mental health care in America. Whitaker explores the ethnicity of practices and questions the safety and efficacy of psychiatric

Mental Health coverage prior to the Affordable Care Act was far to none. With about nearly one-third of currently covered individuals having no coverage for substance abuse disorder services and approximately 20% having no coverage for mental health services. Services such as outpatient therapy visits, impatient crisis intervention and stabilization were among many that were not offered. Since the Affordable Health Care Act has been passed more individuals are able to afford health insurance that were once uninsured. It has helped many individuals in being able to obtain medical services that were once inaccessible.

The lack of mental health care services for minorities is a long-standing problem in the United States. The first time the issue received attention was in 1985, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report that described serious health discrepancies that minority populations were enduring. In 1986, because of this report, the Office of Minority Health was formed to assist in the reduction of the health care shortages for

According to the popular media report issued by CNN, latinos in general, have been struggling to find help for mental health issues amongst their ever growing population (Rodriguez, 2013). Even though Obamacare ensures affordable healthcare for 6 million latinos, it’s still not enough for the hispanic community who are suffering from mental illness to seek help (Rodriguez, 2013). The major fear in the latino community is the fact of being stigmatized when obtaining help from mental institutions and services (Rodriguez, 2013). Therefore, many community members refuse to seek help and the mental illnesses go unnoticed. And even when the mental illness are acknowledged, latinos are known for asking extended family members, the community, church leaders, and spiritual healers for help and treatment instead of admitting themselves at hospitals (Rodriguez, 2013). Many latinos feel apprehensive towards mental illnesses and therefore, searching for help seems like such a taboo in the community. Moreover, according to the National Resource Center for Hispanic Mental Health, Hispanics are a high-risk group for depression, substance abuse and anxiety. About 1 in every 7 Latinos has attempted suicide (Rodriguez, 2013). Therefore, this puts them more at risk because of the lack of efficient treatment and care for people suffering with mental illnesses in their community especially in this generation. Furthemore, many elderly Latinos in the population find this acculturation overwhelming

(2) Disparities between the health of persons with mental illness as compared with that of those without, or (3) disparities between populations with respect to mental health and the quality, accessibility, and outcomes of mental health care ( Safran, M. A., Mays Jr, R. A., Huang, L. N., et al.,2009). Elderly immigrants are among the nation’s most vulnerable minority groups due to their limited health literacy ( Cordaso, Asch, Franco, & Magione, 2009) and serious health disparities, with many experiencing significantly worse health outcomes as compared to other groups. The term elderly immigrants refers to individuals 65 years of age or older who were not born in the United States (Leach,

barriers may weigh into African-Americans and Hispanics cautiousness of mental health facilities. (Bailey et al., 2011).

Seeking to improve care and lower costs, Florida became the first state to offer a Medicaid health plan designed exclusively for people with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar conditions. The plan offered by Connecticut-based Magellan Complete Care - is part of a state experimentation to co-ordinate physical and mental healthcare for those enrolled in Medicaid. Mental illness is a big driver of Medicaid costs because it is twice as prevalent among beneficiaries of the public insurance program for the poor as it is among the general population. Studies show that enrollees with mental illness, who also have chronic physical conditions, account

Conner, K. O., Copeland, V. C., Grote, N. K., Rosen, D., Albert, S., McMurray, M. L., Koeske, G. (2010).

According to research Asian Americans experience disfranchisement among mental health care services. Research findings suggest that usual referral processes through School Base Mental Health Services (SBMHS) gatekeepers may still result in disparities in care despite equivalent access, with Asian Americans more likely to have needs unmet.

In our current society, many believe that barriers to mental health treatments are “limited availability and affordability of mental health care services, insufficient mental health care policies, lack of education about mental illness, and stigma” (Unite for Site, 2000-2013). If those barriers exist for

This article presents a policy analysis of the Mental Health Parity Act of 2007. It focuses mainly on the impact of the new legislation on the existing state parity laws. 54 million Americans are impacted by mental health issues each year costing the United States nearly $100 billion dollars annually (Marth, 2009). In relation to Mental Health coverage prior to the new legislations; individuals did not receive coverage similar to other physical and surgical medical treatments. As a result of inadequate treatment, this particular population can sometimes lead to unhealthy lifestyles and habits. The cost of Mental Health services and treatment can be extremely expensive including coy-payments, treatment visits, and other resources. However, this

Disparities also affect Blacks, Latinos, and lower educated and low socio economic individuals more than whites. Not only individual population groups are affected but regional disparities have been identified causing alarm in mental health communities (Kim et al., 2013). The article examines multiply mental health service use disparities in the United States, yet specifically looked at regions in the South, Northeast, Midwest and West. Service use of mental health varied significantly by region. Over 250 different geographic areas were sampled for the research. The national priority for eliminating these disparities needs to be addressed to reduce this imbalance. How does the mental health community open up access across geographical areas of the country to services for the older racially and ethnically diverse clientele?

Studies have shown that the population with Mexican origins presents lower rates of admission in hospitals specializing in mental health. These results have raised discussions on whether the lower number of Mexican-Americans admitted to these hospitals is due to a lower occurrence of mental disorders or to a lower number of individuals making use of this type of services. Others find that one of the factors that stop Hispanic immigrants from reporting mental health problems and seeking professional help to solve them is the difficulty to communicate in the English language. Generally, For Mexican immigrants, there are indications that individuals’ risk of mental health could be different than

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, all states now some type enacted law. These laws may vary some in different states, but can be divided into three categories; Mental Health "Parity" or Equal Coverage Laws, Minimum Mandated Mental Health Benefit Laws, Mental Health "Mandated Offering Laws. In this report, I will be covering Mental Health “Parity” or Equal Coverage Laws. Insurance coverage has been an issue when it comes to mental health. However, parity now prohibits insurers or health care plans from discriminating between coverage offered for different illnesses. This includes mental illness, substance abuse, and other physical disorders

Moreover, language has been seen as a dominant barrier to access. According to a stuy conducted by Memon et al(2016) some individuals who happen to be recent migrants that constituted the BME community had little or no understanding of English. The inability to communicate their problems with health professionals was a major setback. The gaps in access to mental health facilities reflect the disparity in BME mental health needs and may also have resulted from institutional, cultural and/or socioeconomic exclusion variables (Memon et al 2016 ). Likewise, individuals identified language barriers in accessing a food subsidy program in a rural area in England, as they were not able to register.