Summary Of Nickerson's Study On Mental Illness

The Latino community, from immigrating to United States born Latinos are often known to be depressed. Depression is a medical illness that causes a constant feeling of sadness and lack of interest, it affects how the person feels, behaves and thinks. Many Latinos rely on their extended family, community, traditional healers, or churches for help during a health crisis. As a result, many Latinos with mental illnesses often go without professional mental treatment. But why is it that Latinos are so reluctant to receiving help? Sheila Dichoso states that, “there are only 29 Latino mental-health professionals for every 100,000 Latinos in the United States, compared to 173 non-Hispanic white providers

Statistics state that mental illness is estimated to be higher in blacks than in whites. One of the contributing factors to why blacks aren’t being cared for when they have a mental illness is because of the stigma that mental illness doesn’t exist within the community. According to Plowden (2006), “ African American men often differ in their presentation of depression and are often misdiagnosed. African American men are at greater risk for depression, but they are less likely to participate in mental health care.” This is due to the

This article is a great article that relates to African Americans seeking mental health treatment at lower rates than whites. The article states that this disparity can be attributed to attitudes toward services, alternate coping, and differences in care. This article also illuminates biases in counseling.

Cultural mistrust of white mental health clinicians among African Americans with severe mental illness was conducted to determine the effects of cultural mistrust when African American patients with their white clinicians. The hypothesis tested was African American patients would have more of a negative feeling towards white clinicians that are providing care for them. According to this study they examined 154 African Americans that had been recently admitted into a psychiatric

Health care for mental illness is an issue in the African American community for Men, Women and Adolescents due to the underserving and lack of mental healthcare providers, the cultural stigma of having mental illness and

Racism against African Americans and other ethnicities is still prevalent in our society. Salis (2015) mentions a recent poll of Caucasian and African Americans and found that sixty percent of those surveyed felt racial relationships ha vent improved and forty percent felt they were worse. In this paper, I will identify how a counselor can reduce the effects of racism and discrimination that has affected African Americans. Additionally, I will address what role a counselor plays in reducing the stigma of mental illness within the African American community. Furthermore, I will highlight the legal and ethical issues identified in the video

Across the country, a steady increase has been noted in the number of patients presenting to emergency departments for psychiatric complaints (Zun, 2014). Patients also attempt to use their primary care doctors to treat their mental illnesses. The mental health care options for these patients are extremely limited, especially for minority populations such as African Americans and Hispanics. One out of four adults in America suffers from some form of mental illness, yet only one out of three of those affected receives treatment (Safran, 2009). Furthermore, patients are routinely misdiagnosed, receive poor quality of care, receive care from providers who have no understanding of their cultures and values, or are not even able to receive care in the first place (Sanchez, 2012).

Although the practice of counseling has evolved considerably since its inception, the concept of multicultural competence remains novel. Engrossed in the lives of every clinician are underlined biases and prejudices that act as filters in which every interaction with a clients is affected. Current research on the topic of multicultural counseling has shown that although multicultural awareness is on the rise there is still a remarkable gap in research regarding the use of counseling service and outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities (Kerney,Draper, & Baron, 2005). Insights such as these have encouraged researchers to investigate multicultural

3. Differences in values and beliefs define a person's choice for mental and physical health care. “Because health care is a cultural construct, arising from beliefs about the nature of disease and the human body, cultural issues are actually central in the delivery of health services treatment and preventive interventions” (Office of Minority Health, 2005, p. 6). It is important to acknowledge that Esmeralda fits into two categories of minority because Esmeralda is a Latina. It is important to know that Hispanic women are less likely to make full use of many social services even when they are provided to them. Hispanics normally are family oriented and that means Esmeralda will probably want to involve her family in any treatment program she

When experiencing a mental illness, African Americans face obstacles “related to understanding the problem or situation and limitation in awareness of possible solutions, strategies remedies and resources” (Hines-Martin, Malone, Kim, & Brown-Piper, 2003). In a study by Hines-Martin (2003), participants verbalized that they did not think they were “crazy” and therefore did not need mental health services. In this instance participants showed a lack of knowledge about what mental health illness looks like. They identified mental illness as dichotomous states (Hines-Martin et al., 2003). A study by Mental Health America found similar results. In this study, a majority of African Americans surveyed believed that depression was a “health problem” and in some cases “normal” (MHA, 2012). Talking about mental illness is taboo for African Americans, and as a result they possess little knowledge about specific mental health problems or available treatments (Alvidrez et al., 2008). For African Americans, stigma serves as an impediment to problem recognition. Because they have a misconstrued idea of what mental illness is, they are less likely to contemplate that they have such problems. Alvidrez (2008) found that stigma prevented 65% of their survey respondents from contemplating that they had such problems. Because many African Americans are uninformed about what mental illness is and how it

The Influence of Poverty and Tradition on Latin Women’s Mental Health Latina women are faced with countless adversities as a result of their socioeconomic conditions and are forced to endure the illnesses that are incurred. Mental illnesses in particular are being kept in silence within the Latino community as it is frowned upon to discuss one’s problems with others. This is due to a deeply rooted tradition where privacy is honored, any form complications are sacred, and these are all kept within one’s household. The stigma behind mental health and seeking treatment is so stigmatized that many do not seek help or even a diagnosis.

In a study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health (2003), researchers addressed mental health disparities between communities of color and the White community in several areas of health and well-being. Results indicated that although the amount of Asian Americans and African Americans students living in Greater Minnesota is relatively small, they reported much higher levels of several key risk behaviors than do their counterpart. More specifically, African Americans tend to score twice as worse as their White counterparts in most areas (sexual activity, fighting, emotional distress, smoking, drinking, family ties, activities, and etc.).

Ten female participants and ten male participants were randomly selected from a pool of 43 eligible patients currently in treatment. 12 of the participants were Caucasian, five were Hispanic, and two were African American. All of the participants were born and raised in Suffolk County, New York. 12 of the participants were diagnosed with comorbid psychiatric conditions including Major Depressive disorder, Bipolar disorder, and Borderline Personality disorder. The study was not advertised openly at Phoenix House, and participants were informed of the study and asked to participate in private.

​Multicultural counseling is becoming more imperative as a part of counseling professional’s training and education due to the continuing increase of diversity within our population (Sue & Sue, 2016). The European Western frame from which counseling professionals have based their practices on, are not adhering to the different cultures and how different cultures respond to these practices. Each person belonging to a different culture can often respond negatively to the non-cultural specific practices and methods of counseling (Sue & Sue, 2016). This can often leave and create a group consisting of different ethnic minorities untreated for psychological impairments and distress. Part of multicultural counseling is to become familiar with the different cultures residing within our society, so that one is more prepared to help the individuals with diverse problems. Part of the minority groups that are often overlooked and ignored is the Asian Americans. As African Americans and Hispanic cultures respond differently in accordance to their cultures, Asian Americans too have responses that are influenced by their specific cultural values. It is important to understand the different perspectives from the different identity roles that Asian American can obtain so that one may appropriately design the right counseling path for the individual. There are multiple identification roles that Asian Americans can have depending on their background. Asian Americans can also identify

As a woman of color in a working class family, I barely met other people of color who openly discussed emotions, mental health, or mental illness. During my graduate studies, I was typically 1 out of 5 ethnically diverse students in the majority of my classes, and 1 of 2 in my undergraduate studies. These experiences made me aware that there is a lack of mental health representation amongst people of color. Although my interest in understanding perception, emotional processes, and trauma, developed long before my pursuit of higher education, I realized the importance of pursing a PsyD. is not only for personal growth, but also to better serve my community.