The subject I decided to write about is depression among African Americans and how it has become a huge concern yet it is still stigmatized in the black community. Mental health is not restricted to one particular race, ethnicity, socio-economic background but cultural background and historical history can cause depression to be expressed and deal with differently especially among both black males and females. Depression is vastly misunderstood in the black community and often confused as emotional angst. Education about depression and destigmatizing mental health issues will go a long way to lessen the fears and stigma that surround it. To be able to understand depression better the three factors I will focus on in this paper is culture,
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This goes back to the culture of believing that only having faith can cure the issue rather than seeking medical help when necessary and crucial to survive. Another issue that African American male faces than the females is incarceration that has become a poor substitute for mental health treatment “young African American males are sent to jail for their crimes much more frequently than Caucasian youth who are guilty of the same or similar offenses,” (Lucida: 2014). Theses type of discriminatory incarceration may prevent many young African Americans from seeking the help they need, to cope with their personal issues that is hindering them to become progressive individual of this society. However, as mentioned earlier even if the help is available to them, emphasize on hyper-masculine culture prevent them from seeking counseling when …show more content…
A study published by the Center fro Disease Control (CDC), “found that women (4 percent vs. 2.7 percent of men) and African-Americans (4 percent) are significantly more likely to report major depression than whites (3.1 percent). But the CDC also finds that just 7.6 percent of African-Americans sought treatment for depression compared to 13.6 percent of the general population in 2011” (Hamm: 2014). This study shows that African American women experience depression on a higher rate than whites, and they also experience higher rate of depression compared to the general population and like males they tend to “mask” the problem. Health disparities research has shown African Americans, low use of mental health services is due to poverty and that limits their options to access to mental health services. Another reason for the low use of treatment available is the quality of mental health care they receive. As mention in the research, “although psychotherapy care is preferred among African Americans research has shown they receive culturally insensitive psychotherapy care, resulting in high rates of premature termination from mental health services” (Mengesha and Ward:
This goes back to the culture of believing that only having faith can cure the issue rather than seeking medical help when necessary and crucial to survive. Another issue that African American male faces than the females is incarceration that has become a poor substitute for mental health treatment “young African American males are sent to jail for their crimes much more frequently than Caucasian youth who are guilty of the same or similar offenses,” (Lucida: 2014). Theses type of discriminatory incarceration may prevent many young African Americans from seeking the help they need, to cope with their personal issues that is hindering them to become progressive individual of this society. However, as mentioned earlier even if the help is available to them, emphasize on hyper-masculine culture prevent them from seeking counseling when …show more content…
A study published by the Center fro Disease Control (CDC), “found that women (4 percent vs. 2.7 percent of men) and African-Americans (4 percent) are significantly more likely to report major depression than whites (3.1 percent). But the CDC also finds that just 7.6 percent of African-Americans sought treatment for depression compared to 13.6 percent of the general population in 2011” (Hamm: 2014). This study shows that African American women experience depression on a higher rate than whites, and they also experience higher rate of depression compared to the general population and like males they tend to “mask” the problem. Health disparities research has shown African Americans, low use of mental health services is due to poverty and that limits their options to access to mental health services. Another reason for the low use of treatment available is the quality of mental health care they receive. As mention in the research, “although psychotherapy care is preferred among African Americans research has shown they receive culturally insensitive psychotherapy care, resulting in high rates of premature termination from mental health services” (Mengesha and Ward: