Treatment Concerns

When Black individuals seek care for mental health conditions, they are more often diagnosed with schizophrenia and less often diagnosed with mood disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder, when compared to white people with the same symptoms.

Additionally, Black people are less likely to be offered evidence-based medication or therapy than the general population.

Access to care

Black Americans are more likely to lack health insurance compared to white people.

Because of a dearth of Black or African American healthcare providers, Black individuals face challenges in finding culturally competent care.

Stigma can also be a limiting factor for Black individuals seeking mental healthcare. Studies have shown Black people and African Americans believe that mild depression or anxiety would be considered “crazy” in their communities. Many also believe discussions about mental health conditions would not be acceptable, even with family.

Criminalization and Incarceration

Black people experiencing mental health conditions are criminalized and incarcerated at higher rates than any other ethnic group.

Although Black and African American people make up 13 percent of the general U.S. population, they comprise nearly 40 percent of the prison population.

Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly 5 times the rate of white Americans.

Black people living with mental health conditions, particularly schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, and other psychoses, are more likely to be incarcerated than people of other races.

According to American Addiction Centers, rates of substance use in Black Americans is about the same as in white Americans. While 5 percent of illicit drug users are African American, African Americans represent 29 percent of those arrested and 33 percent of those incarcerated for drug offenses.

Trauma

Racial trauma, also called race-based traumatic stress, describes the mental and emotional damage caused by encounters with racism, racial or ethnic discrimination, and hate crimes. Any individual that has experienced a racist incident is at risk of suffering from race-based traumatic stress.

The violence and dehumanization inflicted upon Black Americans during slavery, the reconstruction era, and Jim Crow were so profound that the community still carries psychological and social scars today. While slavery has ended, systemic racism against Black people still exists, resulting in ongoing racism and further trauma to Black people.

Stigma

Some Black communities accept that mental illnesses are health problems that require treatment. But there’s a severe stigma in other communities that implies a mental health problem is a sign of weakness and should be kept hidden from others.

This stigma is compounded by mistrust of the medical system, which has historically not served Black people well and caused further harm. This harm includes horrific medical experiments on enslaved people, the forced sterilizations of Black women, and the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study, which withheld treatment from hundreds of Black men for decades to let doctors track the course of the disease.

Instead of seeking out a mental health professional, Black Americans might look to their church or clergy for support that speaks to their spirituality.