CULTURE COUNTS: MENTAL HEALTH CARE FOR ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS

Course overview

Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity was written as a supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [DHHS], 1999). It documents the existence of striking disparities for minorities in mental health services and the underlying knowledge base. Racial and ethnic minorities have less access to mental health services than do whites. They are less likely to receive needed care. When they receive care, it is more likely to be poor in quality. In Chapter 5, the focus is on exploring mental illness among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. There are significant differences between subpopulations of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander. These are explored in this chapter. Two more recent surveys, completed in the early 2000s (2001 to 2003), the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS) and the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS R) provide updated and more comprehensive information about the disparities that exist in the need for and delivery of mental health services for the Latino and Asian American populations. See the following url for more information - http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/CPES/about_cpes/background.jsp. Key words: Culture, race, ethnicity, Asian American, Pacific Islanders, Hawaiian, society, minorities, minority, white, black, Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, native, Indian, mental health, disparity, diversity, poverty, context, immigrant, immigration, surgeon general