Solution to the mental health issue faced by African Americans

The mental health issues faced by the African American community can only be dealt by

a comprehensive approach rather than linear and isolated efforts. It would not only need to

ensure adequate and equal access to healthcare but also the historical and ethnic apprehensions

that have been developed among African Americans over the course of time (US et al, 2001).

Some of the major interventions that effectively assist in this regard are as stated

African Americans have a lack of trust in the medical system because of the historical

abuse that they have witnessed in the American healthcare system, either the abuse through

inadequate medical insurance, financial burden, and the discrimination in the American health

care system. This bottleneck of lack of trust result in almost one half of mental treatment by the

African American community. This distrust combines with the stigmatization of black American

with mental disorders to force them towards the state of paranoia.

Major public health intervention can be initiated either with direct or indirect contracts

with the help of for-profit and non-profit firms. This intervention can be assisted with the mental

health practitioners that have African American descent because the research suggests that the

probability of treatment by African American physicians is five times more than white American

physicians towards African Americans. The apprehension or the syndromes towards the health

care system would exist but its adverse impact can significantly be reduced with such public

health related interventions.