CULTURE COUNTS: THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY ON MENTAL HEALTH

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. To better understand what happens inside the clinical setting, Chapter 2, Culture Counts: The Influence of Culture and Society on Mental Health, looks outside. It reveals the diverse effects of culture and society on mental health, mental illness, and mental health services. This understanding is key to developing mental health services that are more responsive to the cultural and social contexts of racial and ethnic minorities. Key words: Culture, race, ethnicity, society, minorities, minority, white, black, Asian, Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, native, Indian, mental health, disparity, diversity, poverty, context, immigrant, immigration, surgeon general