Racial and ethnic minority communities often face obstacles such as limited financial resources, lack of insurance coverage, or geographic barriers to accessing mental health services. Additionally, by prioritizing policy initiatives that fund programming in community-based settings provided by professionals and lay persons of color, mental health systems can directly target well-known barriers to accessing care for racial and ethnic minoritized populations. Additionally, the North Carolina Healthcare Association, who advocates on behalf of the state’s hospitals, recently included “expanded access to community-based behavioral health services with an emphasis on early intervention and treatment” to its list of legislative priorities (North Carolina Healthcare Association, 2022). Yet, Black individuals make up 52% of psychiatric inpatient admissions, indicating that for this population, there are multiple barriers to community-based care such as discrimination, cost, and mistrust of the mental health system which prolongs seeking treatment and leads to escalation of mental health symptoms (Alang, 2019; https://www.emdria.org/blog/emdria-members-respond-how-can-the-field-of-emdr-therapy-increase-access-of-care-for-bipoc-individuals/ Oluwoye et al., 2021; Satterfield, 2021). Gaps were identified based on issues discussed in the mental health services literature around accessible healthcare that were not addressed in legislation.
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- The CVS Health National Health Equity Advisory Board is made up of a diverse group of leaders with a wide range of expertise and lived experiences.
- To address institutionalized racism, she went on, decision makers should focus on policy innovation with people of color and diverse communities as their focus.
- Black and Latine people are more likely to receive inpatient services as opposed to community-based outpatient services (Alang & McAlpine, 2019; SAMHSA, 2021).
- Research has shown that African American and Latino communities in the US have expressed mistrust of clinicians as a product of historical persecution as well as current issues of racism and discrimination (Gopalkrishnan 2018).
- Access to community mental health services faces unique challenges in different regions.
Instead, effective treatment may include care that is rooted in community, tradition, and cultural practices. When people access care, they manage their conditions better, improve their lives, and contribute to their communities. Improving access creates a more equitable healthcare system.
Mental Health Facts for American Indian/Alaska Natives (.pdf)
Currently, EHR systems (similar to those used in physical health facilities) are not widely used in community-based services with many providers continuing to rely on paper records (Larrison et al., 2018; NCDHHS-b, 2023). Black and Latine people are more likely to receive inpatient services as opposed to community-based outpatient services (Alang & McAlpine, 2019; SAMHSA, 2021). However, substantial disparities continue to be present for communities of color, especially Black and Indigenous populations, which continue to face disproportionate rates of suicide and inaccessibility to care (Cénat, 2020; Stone et al., 2023; Thomeer et al., 2022). However, with this being a more recent law, most funding initiatives have yet to be allocated and some of the initiatives that have been allocated (e.g. expansion of virtual behavioral health services) have yet to receive funding (NC Pandemic Recovery Office-b, n.d.). With these funds, the North Carolina government plans to expand crisis support services, bolster interventions for suicide prevention, purchase electronic health record (EHR) platforms for better integration of physical and behavioral health services, and integrate peer support specialists into more behavioral health settings (NC Pandemic Recovery Office-a, n.d.).
People of color at high risk of PTSD
To understand the effectiveness and suitability of these approaches, we aim to systematically evaluate the diverse content (i.e., the advertisements and treatment material) with support from stakeholders and end-users, who represent the minority groups. This, coupled with planned governmental reduction in language interpretation services, further increases the gap in mental health equity in Sweden. Language-incongruent encounters with the healthcare system increase the risk of inadequate communications, misdiagnosis, mistrust of the system, and possible further worsening of symptoms 7, 8. Individuals can now access evidence-based therapy online through standardized text-based modules that contain interactive exercises tailored to their needs, as well as continuous therapist support from the privacy of their own homes. MTG is committed to inclusivity and scaling-up access to bridge the mental health gap for minority populations. Strategies include digital recruitment, psychoeducational resources, and culturally adapted treatment content.
BHCEN has created paid leadership opportunities for students of color in the form of a student advisory board, with the intent of harnessing diverse student input to better understand the needs of emerging behavioral health providers in the state. Operated out of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, BHECN tracks and responds to emerging trends and gaps in the behavioral health workforce and provides the legislature with biannual reports that include workforce data analysis. Hawaii‘s Workforce Development Board, a required component of state’s Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) plan, must include representation from community-based Native Hawaiian organizations, and the Native Hawaiian Education Council serves as an educational partner in delivering job readiness services. Meaningful and elevated stakeholder engagement is an essential starting point for building diversity within a state behavioral health workforce. The same analysis indicates that among dedicated behavioral health workforces, 83.5% of psychologists are white, as are 60.6% of social workers and 64.6% of counselors. Building on existing work to expand behavioral health workforce capacity, states are focusing on policies that foster equity and inclusion in recruitment and retention efforts, looking to increase workforce capacity and workforce diversity at all levels.