Minority men take longer to recover from this type of illness
Minority men take longer to recover from mental illness, say researchers from Royal Holloway University, and the primary reason is because men from minorities are…
Men from ethnic minorities take longer to recover from mental illness, study finds. (Shutterstock)
Minority men take longer to recover from mental illness, say researchers from Royal Holloway University, and the primary reason is because men from minorities are some of the least likely to seek professional help for such issues.
SEE ALSO: Mental illness stigma: Cause of isolation and treatment delay
But is the reason behind this disparity really just a lack of access to care?
Experts say accessibility is a big factor as studies have shown, but maybe more importantly is how minority men feel about the concept of mental illness itself.
Dr. Frank Keating shared some of the theories surrounding minority men and the mental health disparity in a lecture during Mental Health Awareness Week, suggesting stigma associated with mental illness plays a stronger role in why minority men avoid care than previously thought. When interviewing minority men in London, Keating and his team found men were very reluctant to speak about their feelings, indicating it clashed with their ideas of masculine identity.
This is not the first time stigma has been evaluated as one of the primary causes of untreated mental illness among minorities, though experts in the realm of psychology indicate it is a stigma that affects people from all backgrounds.
“Our culture can be very unaccepting and even hostile to people who are different in any way, Ravi Chandra, M.D., F.A.P.A, a psychiatrist and writer in San Francisco, who contributes the Pacific Heart Blog for Psychology Today, told Saludify. In past days, people with physical issues were stigmatized, and those with mental issues were treated horrendously, locked in asylums and so forth.
It just so happens that certain cultures–particularly minority cultures–have a more deep-seated superstitions and fears associated with mental illness, which is why they tend to be the least likely to seek care for issues like depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety.
Does a lack of access to care have any impact?
Minorities need better access to mental health services. (Shuttestock)
Stigma aside, there is validity to the argument that minorities need better access to mental health services. Without access, not only do minority men miss out on treatment options, they miss out on educational opportunities. Many minorities, such as Hispanics, place a high importance on family, spreading knowledge they have gained to their relatives. They need access to such education, however, before they can increase awareness among family members.
Improving the access to care through insurance coverage is just one part of the mental health barrier. Minority individuals have shown through research they also want to trust their health care providers, and that trust is less easily established if doctors aren’t culturally sensitive, multilingual, or from the ethnicity being treated.
Decoded Science reports 2011 records of the American Census Bureau indicated that 30.1 percent of Hispanic people and 19.5 percent of African American people had no health insurance coverage. In comparison, only 11.1 percent of non-Hispanic white people were uninsured.
SEE ALSO: Mental health care for Hispanics will improve with Obamacare
“Due to the increasing numbers of monolingual and bilingual (Spanish speaking) members of the U.S. population, according to U.S. census data, it is important for mental health professionals to provide culturally relevant treatments in order to be most effective in successful outcomes, Robin L. Shallcross, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Licensed Psychologist at the Pacific University School of Professional Psychology, told Saludify. When these services are provided in fluent Spanish, without the need for an interpreter, we find Latinos will seek out and remain in treatment in greater numbers than when services are provided only in English.
For many in the United States, access to care has dramatically improved with the Affordable Care Act; however statistics indicate minorities tend to be uninformed about the possible benefits of the new health care law and therefore are missing out on their opportunities.
