. 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...
…men. Psychological Services, 10, 323332. doi:10.1037/a0027904This research provides evidence of the importance of online social support for African American men as it relates to their overall mental health. Here, the authors use meta-analysis to support the use of online mechanisms to support black men with mental health disorders. Traditionally, black men are reluctant to use treatment options related to mental health due to the stigma attached to them. Online mechanisms allow for individuals to leverage the benefits of treatment without necessarily being subject to the social stigma attached to using the services.
Watkins DC, Johnson-Lawrence V, & Griffith DM (2011).Men and their father figures: Exploring racial and ethnic differences in mental health outcomes.Race and Social Problems,3, 197211. doi:10.1007/s12552-011-9051-5
This research looks to reveal the correlation between fatherhood and mental health outcomes for African American men. Here the research found adverse circumstances related to the absence of a father figure within a childs life and their overall development of mental health.
Williams DR (2003).The health of men: Structured inequalities and opportunities.American Journal of Public Health,93, 724731. doi:10.2105/AJPH.98.Supplement_1.S150
This research looks to provide an evidence of the structure inequalities that impact African Americans as their ablity to cope with mental health issues. The authors reveal has structural racism, laws that disproportionately impact African Americans and slavery have all created structural inequalities that are difficult to dislodge within society.
Woodward AT, Taylor RJ, & Chatters LM (2011).Use of professional and informal support by Black men with mental disorders.Research on Social Work Practice,21, 328336. doi:10.1177/1049731510388668
This research articles provides additions support for the need for mental health treatment for African Americans. Here, the articles look to establish both formal and informal mechanism that the black community can use to better cope with mental health disorders.
References
1. Allen-Meares, P., & Burman, S. (2020). The endangerment of African American men: An appeal for social…
References
1. Allen-Meares, P., & Burman, S. (2020). The endangerment of African American men: An appeal for social work action. Social Work, 40, 168–274.
2. 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:10.1080/003773109035049083. 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/s10597-006-9052-94. Bryant-Bedell K, & Waite R (2010). Understanding major depressive disorder among middle-aged African American men. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66, 2050–2060.
5. 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/hls0016. Carlton-LaNey, I. (2013). Notes on a forgotten Black social worker and sociologist: George Edmund Haynes. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 10, 430–539.
7. 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.0b013e31818980818. 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:10.1177/07334648042721009. Penderhughes, E. (2019). Understanding race, ethnicity, and power. New York: Free Press.
10. Watkins DC, & Jefferson SO (2013). Recommendations for the use of online social support for African American men. Psychological Services, 10, 323–332. doi:10.1037/a002790411. Watkins DC, Johnson-Lawrence V, & Griffith DM (2011). Men and their father figures: Exploring racial and ethnic differences in mental health outcomes. Race and Social Problems, 3, 197–211. doi:10.1007/s12552-011-9051-512. Williams DR (2003). The health of men: Structured inequalities and opportunities. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 724–731. doi:10.2105/AJPH.98.Supplement_1.S150 13. Woodward AT, Taylor RJ, & Chatters LM (2011). Use of professional and informal support by Black men with mental disorders. Research on Social Work Practice, 21, 328–336. doi:10.1177/1049731510388668 2
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