Mental health in the black community has been a common problem throughout history. As children when we feel we are different mentally we are told by our community that it’s just a phase, or simply we don’t address the problem at all. Without our mental state of mind is healthy, we cannot be healthy. A lot of people feel it is their fault when they are diagnosed with a mental health issue, but we must remember that it is not our fault or the fault of our loved ones, somethings just happen. The most common mental health issue in the African American community is depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD. We get these mainly from seeing family members die at the hands of gangs, police, other violence, or natural causes and not being able to properly manage our mental state and feelings afterward. Many in African American community find solace by being having faith in their family and religion to help them through the struggles they find with their mental conditions. These play a big role when many cannot get the proper medical services they need for themselves or others they may know with a problem. Cost of medications is usually a big problem, and even the actual medical professionals are sometimes the problem at hand.
In an article about arrests, trauma, and incarceration we see that race and your location are not always the most important ingredient when these factors are assessed. In this study, Lena J. Jaggi and Briana Mezuk, two researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University, and co-researchers found that regardless of race PTSD and trauma are elevated in low-income, urban communities. It just so happen to be that those of the African American descent experience increased levels of these findings. Jaggi and Mezuk also found that the relationship between trauma and incarceration plays a significant role in the emergence and persistence of health disparities over the life course. It is important to know that gender is a factor when it comes to trauma, PTSD and your initial contact with the criminal justice system. Racism the concentration of crime in certain neighborhoods and the tension between the law enforcement and the citizens are all factors that we cannot ignore when trying to understand how incarceration and trauma affect the lives of people of color. A strength found in this study is the large nationally representative community-based sample of Black Americans used. A major weakness is that this study is done in a cross-sectional form so we cannot make certain inferences about causality and temporality.
Another article of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder constructed by Carlos I. Perez Benitez, Nicholas J. Sibrava, Laura Kohn Wood, Andri S. Bjornsson, Caron Zlotnick, Risa Weisberg, and Martin B. Keller, we see that in the African American communities PTSD is chronic. Very few of the study subjects have been shown to have full recovery of their PTSD in two years. Benitez et al found that the white Americans were exposed to less serious traumatic events and mood disorders compared to black counterparts. They examined the relationship between PTSD and racial group status, and the limited research that has been conducted. Even though the study chose was a longitudinal study little is known about within-group clinical characteristics of PTSD in African Americans. Benitez et al showed that although African Americans have higher rates of PTSD they also have the lowest rates of receiving treatment for their PTSD. Which is traumatizing when you think of how many days to day events of a black person’s life can cause them to have PTSD or any other chronic mental illnesses. The rates of recovery were lower than what has been reported in previous longitudinal studies with predominately non-Latino Whites (Benitez et al. 2014).
Post Traumatic stress disorder and other mental illness are not always from the cause of an outside source it could sometimes come from our personal pains. In this study by JoAnne M. Youngblut professor at the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Florida International University and Dorothy Brooten address the question of if grandmothers and mothers experience the same amount of mental health and functioning and physical issues within the first six months after a child in the NICU/PICU dies. With her study, she found that mothers, in fact, have more outcomes when it comes to the death of a child aged newborn to 6 years. Mothers almost doubled the grandmothers when it came to being clinically depressed (Youngblut and Brooten. 2018). This study done by Youngblut showed that even though both mothers and grandmothers experienced the same feelings the mother came out on top for all the studies except for concentration on their work and social support. This study to me was interesting in the fact that even though the grandmother experienced each of the same feelings mothers were tremendously higher in the survey findings. I guess this goes to show that no matter how close you
Also, with the black community and the blacks of Caribbean descent, we see that another thing the African American community faces anxiety disorders. In this study by Joseph A. Himle, Raymond E. Baser, Robert Joseph Taylor, Rosalyn Denise Campbell, and James S. Jackson we see that anxiety disorders among African Americans, black of the Caribbean and non-Hispanic white are roughly the same. Among the black Caribbean men and women had the highest rates of PTSD and highest rates of suicide attempts and major depression. This study done by Himle et al is the largest study of white, Caribbean Blacks, and African Americans with anxiety disorders. Results from the study indicate that whites were at an elevated risk for generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety compared to Caribbean Blacks and African Americans. Blacks meet criteria for PTSD, and also for anxiety disorder. Overall they experienced higher levels of mental illness severity compared to their white counterparts (Himle et al. 2009). With this information we’ve learned, from Himle et al, we can find possible interventions the can be used to help the African American community in their times of distress. A lot of social disorders such as social phobias and anxiety, in general, can be helped at a young age by simply having your needs heard and acted on. Many children are faced with anxiety, many different forms of anxiety could be assessed by things like yoga, and mindfulness, meditation and just simply being aware of things that better your well-being.
African Americans experience stress in many other ways compared to their white counterparts. In a study done by Cheryl L. Woods-Giscombe, a Ph.D., RN, and PMHNP and Susan A. Gaylord also a Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we see the cultural relevance of mindfulness and meditation as an intervention for the black community. Woods-Giscombe and Gaylord found that when they participated in mindfulness activities it helped them manage stress, become more self-aware and it better their health to some degree. According to the researchers, the objective of this study was to explore the similarities of meditation programs and the practices of African American culture whether that be in their religion of just different programs (Woods-Giscombe and Gaylord. 2015). A problem that arose within this was making the black community aware of the health benefits that would come along with these activities and having it appeal to their cultural practices. This study proved that African American men and women who were interviewed experienced multiple similarities when it came to how they participated in their mindfulness techniques and what they practiced like their religion (Woods-Giscombe and Gaylord. 2015). Many stated that family and friends, their religion or spirituality, and how they meditate advanced their mental feelings of stability and clarity. A downfall of this study is they only used 15 people as their control group so we do not know how effective this is across the border of African Americans. It also does not focus on many other mental health issues that are prevalent in the black community.
Which brings me back to the family and friendship support networks for social anxiety disorder in African Americans and black with a Caribbean descent. In this article, Debra S. Levine and her co-writers hit on the subject of Social Anxiety Disorders of people with African descent and Caribbean descent. In this study, they show us that both populations, who have close supportive ties with family members and friends are more protective against creating symptoms for social anxiety disorder. Since this study was done in the form of a cross-sectional study, we cannot determine whether interactions with family are a cause or consequence of social anxiety disorder or SAD. To find that Levine et al. would have had to do a longitudinal study. Levine et al used the comparisons of informal social support and formal social support. We see by the formal social support we are referring to any form of assistance from an individual’s immediate social network (Levine et al. 2015). As you could imagine based on this study, and the previous study looked at by the experts, informal support system are higher in the African American community. Which makes sense when you think about how the black community always looks down on members of their society with mental issues. But this also was a very eye-opening fact just for that same reason, because black people-men, in general, are known to bottle up their emotions and pretend that everything is okay because they have to be strong for their family. And informal social support is other services and assistance given to an individual, whether that be from the public, private agencies, or social media. A strength that these researchers found was that the study does, in fact, demonstrate that SAD may impact groups of African American descent differently. According to the researcher, African Americans with existing mental health treatments are not getting their needs of their community met or even having treatments available to them to pursue. This is important because it causes us to understand the importance of nature, etiology, and the full treatment behind social anxiety disorder (Levine et al. 2015).
There have been little studies on the effectiveness of treatments that deal with mental illnesses targeting African American men. We know that black men face greater stressors than women and men of any other race (Watkins and Jefferson 2012). But why do they not get the professional help that they need? A lot of the stigma around trusting the health field and doctors has plenty to do with that. In this study done by Daphne C. Watkins, School of Social Work from the University of Michigan, and S. Olivia Jefferson they pry open some of the “Recommendations for the Use of Online Social Support for African American Men”. The researchers did not use the traditional approach of treatment by sending them to specialized organizations they approached the situation from an online perspective. Watkins and Jefferson examined the experiences that African American men dealt with that being African American and a male in the United States, talked amongst other groups and facilities that studied black men, and then offered recommendations for the black men to achieve their psychological distress online (Watkins and Jefferson. 2012). With the increasing use of technology in our world, it made sense for this informal, supplemental way of social support would have a positive effect on those who participate. But findings proved that men with a unique background and sensitive needs such as economically disadvantaged communities, men with terminal illnesses, and men with emotional or mental disorders did not actually benefit from the online social support. This study, in fact, enables black men surrounded by their everyday culture to seek professional help for mental illnesses or any illness, regardless of the gender-specific stigma that comes along.
In the study on “Barriers to Treatment Among African Americans with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder” by M. T. Williams of University of Louisville, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, J. Domanico of the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychology, L. Marques and N.J. Leblanc from the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital, and E. Turkheimer of the University of Virginia, Department of Psychology we see that African Americans are underrepresented in treatments and literature that are specialized for people with OCD and are less likely to even have remission for their symptoms. The seven major barriers that separated the African Americans from OCD treatment included cost of treatment, stigma, fears of therapy, believing that it will even benefit them in any way, the most common feeling they do not need help, and just treatment being inconvenient to their schedules or simply just being too busy to do such (Williams et al. 2012). From this research, we see that the ways that African Americans are treated may not be the best way to actually go about treating them for OCD. With the lack amount of data collected on African Americans, it is hard to say whether the treatment they are receiving will help them. A prior study looked at by the researchers done by R. Goodwin and some associates they determined that gender, age, and race were some of the strongest predictors to indicate whether a person will receive any form of mental health treatment (Goodwin et al. 2002). Some treatments suggest that African Americans are being misdiagnosed with OCD or failing to be diagnosed at all. Results of the study showed that black people with OCD should make their health their main priority rather than just wallowing in the fact that their might is not any help for them. Ways to overcome these barriers are presented to us by the researchers in affordable treatment, community education of the disorder itself and making it normalized that anyone could have this problem regardless of race, age, and gender, and helping eliminate provider biases by broadening the horizons of the providers for mental health patients. But the blame still falls on the mental health community and their providers to have better recommendations and reasonable interventions that can further and better the aid of the African Americans, who are an invisible population when it comes to obsessive-compulsive disorder (Williams et al. 2012).
In conclusion, we see that many African Americans deal with many different aspects of mental health and that it is okay to in fact have a mental disability whatever it may be. Some illnesses whether it be stress related or just plain stress, in general, have more of a positive and effective outcome with the treatments aimed at it. We can all simply practice steps that allow us to feel freer and collected in our own communities. But we also must be mindful and aware that not everyone’s situation will allow them to have the same outcomes of destressing. Practicing mindfulness and meditation are simply practices that anyone could do and could cost you nothing, you do not have to have the highest socioeconomic status to acquire a sense of peace and stillness. Yes, it would, in fact, be a greater outcome of this if our communities were safe from violence and already equipped with places that you could go and carry out these practices, but they are not mandatory. And, that's when the black community comes in, being the refuge to their community members in their times of need. Black churches have always been an outreach that is a help in your time of need. Many of the studies showed that religion was a form of solace in their times of trouble, and if it was not for their faith and the black church they potentially would have never sought help or received the help they needed. Black people just need to get over the fears of stigma and thinking that they can’t be helped because no one can relate to them, because once they open up they will see that they are in fact not alone at any step of the way and will be supported until they feel they do not need the support anymore. We also must enlighten our medical professionals on how we truly feel and what is bothering us when it comes to our mental state of mind and our physical states. And by doing this we are making ourselves, and the people that play major roles in our life aware of our situations and bettering life for the ones who have not yet come out with their stories.