Mental Health Disparity: African Americans in the U.S. - Essay Sample

Introduction

Although Black people in the United States have a long history, they remain neglected by health systems due to various reasons. Black people in the United States experience significant health disparities in mental health, chronic conditions, preventive interventions and access to health care. The health disparity selected to be discussed in this paper is poor mental compared to other races in the United States. The health issue chosen that African Americans are experiencing a disparity in is mental health, and the non-profit selected to undertake the recommended program of reducing the disparity is the American Health Association.

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Health Disparity: Poor Mental Health Disparity among African Americans

Mental health is a critical health problem that affects all races in the world. In the United States, poor mental disparity also affects all the races from the majority (White people) to all minority groups like Asians, African Americans, and many others. However, research shows that poor mental health is prevalent in African Americans more than any other race in the US (Neumar et al., 2015). Since it is a constant issue among the African Americans, it influences and impacts the overall health of a person both physically and emotionally. The reason for having many African Americans with mental health problem is as a result of psychological factors when seeking mental health care. The psychological factors include mistrusts that African Americans have on health professionals, high poverty levels, lack of access to mental health care and lack of transportation which African Americans with mental health issue can be transported to receive mental health care services.

The Social Determinants of Poor Mental Health

There are two main determinants of the high prevalence of poor mental health among African Americans. The two main factors include lack of jobs and lack of income, especially in low-socio-economic societies of African Americans. The two determinants of mental health problem lead to stress and anxiety as they struggle to survive as well as send their children to school (Cigna, 2016). When African Americans are unable to obtain or maintain employment, they experience financial difficulties, and this is what leads to stress. When people in this community start experiencing stress, it increases the risk of becoming depressed, and as a result, they indulge in drug abuse.

Employment and job security are two important social factors that determine the mental health of a person. Lack of employment and job security leads to psychological distress. According to Compton & Shim, (2015), psychological distress significantly reduces a person's ability to search and obtain employment across all the races. For instance, when one experiences depression, it is difficult for such a person to secure an employment and this significantly reduces the hours that a person has worked in a week, which impacts one's earnings in a month (Singh et al., 2017). The low income earned increases the risk of poverty cycle in African American communities, which leads to the development of mental disorders such as depression and trauma. The economic, social and environmental stressors among African Americans put them on the risk of unemployment (Cigna, 2016). If they obtain a job, it pays poorly, and it has no security.

Income determines the mental well-being of an individual. It is the income that determines the kind of life that one is going to live. Availability of high income means one has no economic stressors, and therefore, the probability of developing mental health disorders is minimal. However, low or lack of income leads to economic stressors, which result in mental disorders. According to Noonan et al. (2016), most African American communities have low or no incomes, and this has contributed to high prevalence of mental health disorders among them. Due to low income, there is high exposure to community violence of these individuals. Research shows that community violence make people to internalize and externalize their problems, and this leads to both behavioural health problems and mental health illnesses (Daniel et al., 2016).

There are many other social determinants of mental health issues among African Americans, but the lack of income and employment are the main reasons why there are increased individuals with mental disorders among African American communities (Taylor et al., 2016). There is a need for a recommendation of programs and interventions that would alleviate these determinants and improve the overall mental health of African Americans.

The non-profit organization where I can seek the assistance of dealing with the social health determinants discussed is the American Heart Association (AHA). AHA represents and serves all health care centres and their patients. It also serves communities that are economically affected by providing health services to them and help them to enhance their living conditions.

Program to Reduce Mental Health Disparity

The program that would deal with the main determinants of mental disorders among African Americans is supporting the low socio-economic African Americans by campaigning for their rights and having interventions in place for individuals with mental disorders. AHA can have programs to provide mental health care services to members of this community for free so that it can help them recover. According to Havranek et al. (2015), it is lack of early mental health intervention such as counselling that has led to a high prevalence of mental health problem among African Americans. This is caused by African Americans’ inability to afford counselling services, and hence they end up developing mental disorders. The causes of mental health disorders among African American are harsh economic conditions of not having steady income due to lack of employment and job security (SAMHSA, 2019). Campaigning for these communities to have steady incomes and secure jobs would also be a big step towards reducing the development of mental disorders (Thornton et al., 2016). The outcome of this program is that African Americans will experience low economic, social, and cultural stressors due to inclusivity. This would reduce the development of mental disorders among African Americans, and hence the reduce disparity that has been existing.

References

Cigna, (2016), HEALTH DISPARITIES, African-American or Black Population. https://www.cigna.com/static/www-cigna-com/docs/health-care-providers/african-american-health-disparities.pdf

Compton, M. T., & Shim, R. S. (2015). The social determinants of mental health. Focus, 13(4), 419-425. https://focus.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/appi.focus.20150017

Daniel, H., Bornstein, S. S., & Kane, G. C. (2018). Addressing social determinants to improve patient care and promote health equity: an American College of Physicians Position Paper. Annals of Internal Medicine, 168(8), 577-578. https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/m17-2441

Havranek, E. P., Mujahid, M. S., Barr, D. A., Blair, I. V., Cohen, M. S., Cruz-Flores, S., ... & Rosal, M. (2015). Social determinants of risk and outcomes for cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation, 132(9), 873-898. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/cir.0000000000000228

Neumar, R. W., Eigel, B., Callaway, C. W., Estes III, N. M., Jollis, J. G., Kleinman, M. E., ... & Sendelbach, S. (2015). American Heart Association response to the 2015 Institute of Medicine report on strategies to improve cardiac arrest survival. Circulation, 132(11), 1049-1070. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000233

Noonan, A. S., Velasco-Mondragon, H. E., & Wagner, F. A. (2016). Improving the health of African Americans in the USA: an overdue opportunity for social justice. Public health reviews, 37(1), 12. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40985-016-0025-4

SAMHSA, (2019), California Study Reveals Mental Health Disparities Among African Americans. https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/hpr-resources/study-reveals-mental-health-disparities

Singh, G. K., Daus, G. P., Allender, M., Ramey, C. T., Martin, E. K., Perry, C., ... & Vedamuthu, I. P. (2017). Social determinants of health in the United States: addressing major health inequality trends for the nation, 1935-2016. International Journal of MCH and AIDS, 6(2), 139. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5777389/

Taylor, L. A., Tan, A. X., Coyle, C. E., Ndumele, C., Rogan, E., Canavan, M., ... & Bradley, E. H. (2016). Leveraging the social determinants of health: what works?. PloS one, 11(8). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4988629/

Thornton, R. L., Glover, C. M., Cené, C. W., Glik, D. C., Henderson, J. A., & Williams, D. R. (2016). Evaluating strategies for reducing health disparities by addressing the social determinants of health. Health Affairs, 35(8), 1416-1423. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.1357