How mental illness impacts African American women

Mental illness has become a very contention and captivating subject for many American’s of late. The recent COVID- pandemic illustrated the hazards of mental illness and the adverse consequences of not receiving proper treatment. Not only did the pandemic provide much better insight into the elements of mental illness, but it also demonstrated the lack of preparedness by society at large. Many in society disregard the importance of mental illness and its ability to impact the lives of others. Studies conducted by Corrigan and Markowitz found that society often shows by direct and indirect discrimination of those perceived to have mental illness (Corrigan, 2013). This ultimately discourages the discourse needed to help properly review, diagnose and treat mental illness. This becomes particularly acute in the African American community where discussions about mental illness are often shunned. Research conducted by Masuda and Anderson, found that even African American college students tend to conceal any mental health issues due in part to the perceived stigma attached to it. This issue is exacerbated through social media, misinformation, and the need to be perceived positively by peers. Here, the overall stigma associated with mental illness heavily influences African Americans from receiving proper service. According to Pescosolido, the public stigma of mental illness is heavily misinterpreted leading to still further misinformation related to treatment and its importance within everyday life. This lack of overall treatment has implications for African American women as well. Here, the overall socio-economic statistics related to African Americans are nearly all negative. For one, African Americans have the lowest income and wealth statistics in America. They are also less likely to be college education, more likely to become incarcerated, and much more to come from single family homes. These statistics ultimately can be overwhelming for an individual experiencing mental illness. Here, the African American community must not only address many of the racial obstructions faced on a daily basis, but also must address the implications of mental illness on their lives. The resulting stress can provide incentives to engage in unproductive behaviors, which could ultimately harm society overall. At an extreme level, this could lead to criminal behavior, murders, and other behaviors that can be adverse not only to the African American community but to society overall.

To begin, mental illness within African American women is a large social problem. For one, many African American women are relied upon to maintain black households, which include cultural and social dynamics. For example, in 2016 black women accounted for roughly 26% of all births outside of marriage. In addition, the marriage rate for African American women in the lowest of all demographics at 29.15%. These statistics have very strong implications on mental illness and the problems in could potentially cause for society for decades to come. Here, most women are not only responsible for raising many of the children in the African American community, many are doing so without the assistance of a consistent male figure. Nearly 70% of women are currently not married, which may indicate a much larger portion on both the financial and family responsibilities will fall solely on the mother. The stress associated from these activities can be exacerbated by mental illness if not checked consistently. Here, the stress of daily life coupled with many of the nuances of being an African American mother can often complicate issues. These complications include a lack of financial resources to properly diagnose, and treat mental illness complications, a lack of time needed to commit to proper treatment, and an overall disregard for mental illness checks on the part of the community at large.

The disregard for mental health checkups is not unique to African American women solely, but instead is indicative of the black community at large. Research by Ross, Lypson and Kumagai found the African Americans are heavily distrusting of the current healthcare system due in part to misinformation and adverse healthcare outcomes in the past (Ross, 2012). The recent COVID-19 pandemic epitomized their research as African American women were reluctant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as compared to other demographics. A history of maltreatment of African American women has occurred throughout history which has led, overtime, to a general distrust of the medical profession overall. For example, slave women were heavily experimented. Recent research has found evidence that J. Marian Sims, who many widely consider the father of modern-day gynecology, would experiment on slave women without an anesthesia. He would do this as he was famously found saying, “Black women feel no pain.” As recently as the 1960’s African American men and women suffering from syphilis were experimented on even when there was already a cure for the disease available to the public. In this instance the study participants were not notified with some dying in the process of the experimentation, even when the vaccine was proven to be successful. These events, and more have impacted the confidence that African American women have in the overall healthcare system, thus undermining their ability to fully embrace mental illness treatment.

As indicated by the above research, the community will need to coalesce and remove the overall stigma attached with admitting an individual has a mental illness as well look to engage with healthcare professional to seek treatment. What appears promising is that African American women are beginning to recognize the importance of support groups for one another. In addition, celebrities are beginning to encourage dialogue related to mental health awareness. Simone Bilas, a very prominent and decorated gymnast has been very vocal about her mental health issues and the need to address them. She has admitted as such publicly helping to further reiterate the need for public discourse in this matter. Naomi Osaka, a bi-racial tennis player has also spoken out about mental heath as she too has withdrawn from tennis matches due to it. Here, this indicates that socio-economic status of African American women will not deter the impacts of mental health on their lives, careers and families. The actions of these two prominent athletes at the pinnacle of their careers proves as much.

As it relates to how the social problem is framed in the media, different sources provide different perspectives. Social media is arguable the worst form of media as it relates to how mental illness is framed. Here, due in part to the anonymity of social media combined with its pervasiveness in the lives of billions of individuals, misinformation related to mental illness can have a major impact on perceptions. This is particular troubling as research shows that African American women receive a large portion of their information from social media. Oscar Gandy in his research conducted in the Journal of Black Studies found that nearly 26% of information used by African American women come in some way, from social media websites (Gandy 2020. As it relates to the framing of mental health issues, this can have a very strong correlation to reluctance of African American women to discuss the top in a public fashion. Ironically however, social media is being used to help create support groups designed at helping women matriculate the pressures and pitfall of mental illness with their daily lives. From a framing standpoint however, much more work needs to be done to help mitigate the negative appears associated with discussing mental health. Television, radio and print media have done a much better job of framing mental illness to the public. I believe some of this is due to the recent admission of superstars around the world suffering from mental illness. Tiger Woods, Ben Simmons, Calvin Ridley, Simon Biles, and more have admitted to some form of mental illness. This overtime has helped frame the importance of proper mitigation techniques within the African American community.

The socialist perspective that best fits with this social problem is the functionalist perspective. This perspective is important as it focusses on how various relationships and systems in society are interconnected. For African American women, we discussed how many of them are not connected. Here, statistics and research indicate the deterioration of family values has created a large amount of unmarried, single, African American women. Here, they are not connected to the benefits of having a family or two parent household which has been shown to improve overall child development and alleviate stress. In addition, many are not connected to the healthcare system due do a combination of misinformation, stigmatization of mental illness, and an overall mistrust for the healthcare system. Finally, many are not connected to resources and groups designed specifically to help address many of the adverse outcomes associated with mental illness. The fundamentalist approach can helps solve many of these elements by providing a comprehensive and interconnected solutions to mental health awareness and treatment. Here, media can continue to proport the importance of counseling and therapy. Celebrities and athletes can continue to comment on their bouts with mental illness, thereby removing the stigma. African American women can create much more robust social groups to helps tackle issues of mental illness together. All of these elements allow a much more connected solution that uses the benefits of many different products, goods, and services to ultimately help reduce the consequences of mental illness.