Mental health conditions that impact the African American community

. Identify the mental health policy and specific population.

Policy and Specific Population: Social work and the implications of a mental health policy for African Americans

Mental Health Policy: African Americans require a comprehensive and holistic approach to mental health that leverages their unique cultural experience. These issues must acknowledge how to properly help African Americans better navigate many of the mental hurdles they face on day to day basis, while also being cognizant of their ability to evoke change within their respective communities.

The Policy: H.R. 5469 – 116th Congress – Pursing Equity in Mental Health Act

Mental health has become a very contentious and polarizing issue within America at large. For one, it is still one of the few ailments that suffers from a social stigma attached to it through various society mechanisms. Particularly in the African American community, the admissions of mental health conditions are often perceived as being “weak” of “inferior” to others. This is particularly troublesome as mental health issues continue to rise within the African American community. Many have suffered various hardships such as low incomes, lower wealth accumulation, weaker job prospects, racial profiling, and other issues related specifically to the African American community. No single issue can solely contribute to mental health, but the combination of all these elements can surely contribute to it. Black men, in particular, often face a disproportionate burden of preventable morbidity and mortality rates compared to other groups within the United States. These issues are often stigmatized specifically within this group. Research has validated these points and has even shown that black men often have more adverse life experiences that men of other racial groups (Carlton-LaNey, 2013).

Social work related to African Americans has previously been very meager. Little to no research had been conducted until the Research on Social Work Practice published a landmark issue in 2011. This issue specifically addressed the challenges that many Black men face and how these challenges compare to other racial groups. From a social work perspective these issues include black fatherhood, the lack of utilizing medical care, and adverse mental health circumstances. Here, this article, was ground breaking in the sense that it furthered the role of social workers in identifying and presenting peer-reviewed research specifically catered toward Black men. The below annotated bibliography provides an attempt to assess the current landscape related to peer-reviewed articles specifically catered towards the mental health issues that African Americans face. From the preliminary review below, the discourse is heavily dominated by racial and ethnic experiences that must be incorporated into the overall social work practices in order for the living and working conditions for African Americans to improve. Here, the research suggests that a more holistic rather than theoretical approach is requires from the social work profession to address the needs of the African American community. Traditionally, this has been done through “Afrocentric” paradigms in which social workers review the totality of African American worldviews and how these view impact their overall behaviors and experiences towards mental health. Here these view often incorporate the history of slavery and oppression, African American pop culture, socio-economic well-being, and many other elements that can all the utilized to form an opinion related to African Americans.

Roughly 7% of social workers in the United States are African American. Black men in particular are heavily underrepresented within the profession (Allen-Meares, 2020). Unfortunately, due to the many adverse circumstances prevailing in the life of an African American, it is likely that they will interact with the social service system on a regular and consistent basis. As African Americans tend to have few monetary resources, it becomes hard for them to deal with many of the conditions associated with mental health. Here, research has shown that more consultations and social work interventions would actually be very beneficial to African Americans. Black men in particular are heavily vulnerable to mental health as they must often deal with a litany of circumstances including obtaining employment, family relationships, trauma associated violence and living in poor neighborhoods and even legislations that adversely impacts their lives. Social workers can help mitigate these influences through proper intervention and help through consultations (Penderhughes, 2019).

2. Review at least 10 articles related to the selected mental health policy and population. At least 5 of the 10 articles must be peer-reviewed journal articles. Compile annotated bibliography from at least ten articles

Annotated Bibliography

Aymer SR (2010). Clinical practice with African American men: What to consider and what to do. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 80, 20–34. doi:10.1080/00377310903504908

This research articles looks to address how the social work clinical practice can be catered to improve the outcomes for African American men. Here, the research details many of the hardships that are unique to the African American community. Many of these issues which include racial profiling from the police, a higher propensity to be killed while in police custody, lower socio-economic status, and many other issues impact the overall social work profession. This article looks to discuss intervention techniques specially designed to aid in the overall process in provided practical care to the black community. Here the researchers advocate for psychodynamic and Afrocentric theories to be leveraged by social workers. Finally, the article concludes by providing suggestions related to clinical work with African American men. Here the authors found that clinical work can facilitate functional coping strategies, which in turn can diminish feelings of invisibility and release their true selves.

Banks KH, Kohn-Wood LP, & Spencer M (2006). An examination of the African American experience of everyday discrimination and symptoms of psychological distress. Community Mental Health Journal, 42, 555–570. doi:10.1007/s10597-006-9052-9

This research article provides further validity related to the many in which discrimination and psychological distress can adversely impact African Americans communities. Here the authors provide theorical models that can be used to determine how a history of racial injustice impacts the overall mental health of African Americans. The authors specifically utilize the Jim Crow era and how unconscious forms of discrimination impacted African Americans on a daily basis. The study looks to investigate the relationship between perceived everyday discrimination and anxiety and depressive symptoms. From their research, the authors determined that perceived discrimination is directly related to both symptoms of depression and anxiety. The research also found that this depression and anxiety had different patterns in both black men and black women.

Bryant-Bedell K, & Waite R (2010). Understanding major depressive disorder among middle-aged African American men. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66, 2050–2060.

This research article looks to study how African American men recognize and express their symptoms of depression and anxiety. Here, men are very reluctant to express mental health issues due in part to the stigma attached to it. In addition, the article illustrates how socio-economic circumstances often prevent African Americans from engaging with the requisite social work professional. This combination often has adverse impacts on the community and their overall ability to cope with mental health issues such as depression. Here the authors utilized a descriptive qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with ten African American men between the ages of 40 and 59. The authors determined that social workers would benefit from taking into account cultural factors when reviewing mental health conditions.

Calvert WJ, Isaac EP, & Johnson S (2012). Health-related quality of life and health-promoting behaviors in Black men. Health & Social Work, 37, 19–27. doi:10.1093/hsw/hls001

This article looked to research health promoting behaviors specifically for low-income African Americans. Here, the authors found a strong correlation between unhealthy days and various health-promoting behaviors. The authors also discuss the implications of their findings on the social work profession and how it can improve outcomes for the African American community. Namely, the authors advocate for a comprehensive approach which can lead to better health promotion for lower income African Americans.

Chatters LM, Bullard KM, Taylor RJ, Woodward AT, Neighbors HW, & Jackson JS (2008). Religious participation and DSM-IV disorders among older African Americans: Findings from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry: Official Journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 16, 957–965. doi:10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181898081

This research article looks to establish the relationship between religion and overall mental health disorders for older African Americans. Here, the overall African American community is heavily religious. Here, the researchers found that religious service attendance was significantly and inversely associated with the odds of having a lifetime mood disorder. This research is unique in that it was the first ever conducted to find the correlation between mental health disorders and religion within the older African American community. Here, the findings suggest that higher attendance at religious meetings will ultimately result in lower mental disorders and health complications.

Dupree LW, Watson MA, & Schneider MG (2005). Preferences for mental health care: A comparison of older African Americans and older Caucasians. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 24, 196–210. doi:10.1177/0733464804272100

The research here is related to mental health outcomes between African Americans and Caucasians. The findings of the research suggest that African Americans tend to have a higher rate of adverse circumstances and a higher rate of mental health disorders. Per the research, the cause of these issues is varied and multi-faceted. For one, many African Americans faced adverse circumstances the ultimately undermine their overall mental health stability. This includes pervasive racism, lower employment prospects, higher crime rates within their communities, and lower socio-economic status. Overtime, these issues create adverse mental health circumstances for African Americans.